Prince of the Land of Snow
by EBNX-Ragnarok
Summary: Yukirei is the son of the Land of Snow's Queen: Koyuki Kazahana. Continuously plagued with other nations vying for their hands in marriage Yukirei aims to find his father to unite his family, however before he could start a mysterious stranger with incredible power stole his home from him. With friends close by he seeks out his father and help from the Leaf Village. Original Story
1. Queen Koyuki and Prince Yukirei

**Chapter One - Queen Koyuki and Prince Yukirei**

Our story begins with a young woman sitting alone in her bed, her name was Koyuki Kazahana, she looked out at the open curtains as morning's first light started to reveal the destruction of the previous night. Her room was an utter mess: knocked over tables, two sake cups, and a spilled over sake bottle on the carpet. Her clothes thrown all over and with her window open just a crack: she knew what it meant. It means he had left her for the last time . . .

She smiled a sad smile as she rubbed her eye refusing to let a single tear fall, "Looks like our fun is finally over and he's rushed off to finish the last of his business." She took a deep breath, she had work that needed doing, and as she felt morning sickness creep in the back of her throat. She rushed to the bathroom knowing that she would sire his child, but she would raise him to be the king her land needed. Not as a ninja, like his father before him.

Unless it was a girl, then everything she just thought, but with a girl connotation. Queen Koyuki wiped her mouth and tumbled into her tub disgracefully. "Ow. . ." She turned the water on with her foot.

~16 Years Later~

"It's so nice to see you three again after all this time," Princess Koyuki said to her three guests.

"Same to you, with everything that's been happening, it's been difficult. I'm sorry we couldn't have visited you more often." Naruto said scratching his cheek with a bright grin.

"You really turned your kingdom around from last time we saw it," Sasuke commented looking out the balcony to the prosperous capital city of Sosetsu, named after Koyuki's father.

"Don't worry about not visiting, with a kingdom to run, an acting career to pursue, and a child to raise on top of it all I've been so busy my head would spin sometimes from the work load." Koyuki said with a big great smile. It's been almost twenty years since Team Seven saved Princess Koyuki and in that time the Land of Snow changed drastically.

It maintained the name Land of Snow to honor their ancestors despite being well known for their eternally prosperous spring time climate. They were also the leading developer of all facets of the 'modern life,' such as: communication, transportation, and utilities.

Taking a utilitarian approach to life they were undoubtedly the most prosperous kingdom and often shared these utilities with the surrounding nations. There were plans to build a grand railroad between the five major countries, but the plans were still in development and they had to convince all the nations to agree . . . so there would be no such luxury for many generations to come.

Also the Land of Snow's Queen was becoming increasingly popular with each movie she starred in, she's starred in nearly eight movies thus far and helped produce a few others with new lead actors; including her child: Yukirei Kazahana.

"Speaking of children; how is Yukirei?" Sakura asked with a grin, "Any big movies coming up?"

"Oh, he's amazing. We're going to have a festival for his birthday in a few days, you should join us." Koyuki bit her lips looking nervous. "Also . . . he hasn't really shown much enthusiasm for acting as of late, ever since our trip to the Land of Iron four years ago he's been under the tutelage of Lord Mifune and completely enamored in training."

"Sorry Koyuki, we got a mission to do. It can take a while and did you say Old Man Mifune? Isn't he incredibly old?" Naruto asked looking concerned, "How can a guy as old as him teach Yukirei?"

"Want to see them? They're most likely out back in the training field." Koyuki said as she started to walk with Team Seven in tow; they came to see a massive walled off training field the size of the Hyuga estate. All around them were guards and soldiers training together, in the back there was a thick grove of trees, and to the side there was a lake. "There they are," Koyuki said pointing towards the lake where only two people were.

At the lake's edge was a young man in just black shorts, black shirt, and light leather padding for armor. He carried a katana as an ancient looking old man in a simple silver and grey robes with red waist tie barked orders: "Keep your stance strong! Give no hints at fatigue! When you swing envision your enemy, when you cut them, you cut them where it will do the most damage. Go for the critical areas, last thing you need is for them to suffer before death! You're gonna fight shinobi inevitably, never let your guard down!"

Yukirei was panting hard as he switched from stance to stance as he took practice swings at the air. His hair matted to his forehead, eyes stinging he yelled as he spun slashing at what he imagined to be person's neck. "Again!" Yukirei rolled to the side and thrust his sword at what he imagine to be someone's heart, "Again!" He rushed in front of him going for the eyes.

As the Queen and Team Seven approached Mifune ordered; "That's enough for now. Your mother and guests approach," Yukirei collapsed on his knees as he panted hard and fast. Mifune brought him a bamboo flask handing it you Yukirei; he drank from it greedily as some of the white liquid spilled over his neck and shirt.

"You're not giving my son alcohol are you Mifune?" Koyuki asked with a smirk.

"It is milk Milady," Mifune said with a slight bow. The old man looked like he belonged in the ground with the dinosaurs, he looked pretty sturdy for his age, but his eyes still held the strong iron will they always held. He regarded Team Seven with a nod, eyes lingering on Sasuke.

"Mifune," Sasuke greeted with return of a nod. "I take it Suigetsu still hasn't stopped bothering you requesting capable samurai to join the Mist?"

"Ever since I passed my role of general down I've had no such requests," Mifune said looking at Yukirei. "Normally I'd be retired, but after the first two months I couldn't bare to sit still a second longer so I took a new student."

"A prince no less," Sakura said as she walked over to Yukirei. "Hello Yukirei, working hard?"

"Harder than I'm used to," He said covering his mouth and muffling his words. "Sorry I've puked not too long ago," Sakura gave light hearted laughed and nodded walking back to rejoin her comrades.

"Well, at least the fishes are happy." Naruto chided, "So Yukirei. Are you planning on becoming a Samurai or Ninja? Or just getting in shape for a movie?"

"I need to be a strong King," He said as his breathing returned to normal. "I got big shoes to fill, but till then I want to become a sword master in order to journey out alone and find my father."

"Your mother isn't going anywhere for a long time Yukirei," Koyuki said with mock disapproval. But when Yukirei brought up his dad, she pursed her lips in silence.

There was a pause of awkward silence when Yukirei stood up, "It's not that I'm worried about Mom, I know you're gonna live forever." He said looking past her, "It's that." They turned to see a guard running to them, he had chocolate brown hair, tan skin, and deep purple eyes. He was dressed in the basic guard armor and carried a naginata on his back.

"Queen Koyuki, guests from the Land of Honey. That scheduled 'play date,'" He said quietly as from a balcony a big man with a pale blonde hair and a massive mustache waved to them.

"HELLO KAZAHANA FAMILY, WE COME BEARING GIFTS." He bellowed, Yukirei groaned.

Queen Koyuki smiled and waved before turning to her son and sighing, "I'm sorry Yuki. Please try to be polite, they were nice enough to come and bring gifts."

"They're trying to buy a sweet spot with us," He said bitterly. "Also his son is a complete jackass," He said folding his arms with a sour look on his face. He took after his mother with a matching skin tone and hair color, but his face shape. It wasn't soft and rounded like his mothers, but was much more sharp and defined, very handsome with a semi-long hair style.

"Yukirei, we shall resume our training tonight. Your duties call," Mifune said as he turned to walk away.

"We should get going also, we got some really important business in the Land of Earth." Sasuke said looking uncomfortable, his sharingan was active for some reason.

Naruto nodded, "It's been nice seeing you Koyuki, Yukirei." He said as he pulled out two papers, "You two are invited to watch the Chunnin Exams, in a month or so, it's after your birthday Yukirei."

"Thanks, I look forward to watching." Yukirei said as he handed his paper to his Mom. "I need to clean up and have a lunch date with an eight year old girl and a clown."

"I would watch a movie with that premise; a prince, eight years old girl, and a clown." Naruto said with a laugh.

"You're an actor, you got this." Sakura said encouragingly, "Sasuke's right. We need to head out now," Sasuke watched Yukirei go before he nodded to Koyuki and Team Seven vanished in a whirlwind of leaves.

After Yukirei was cleaned up he, instead of his usual deep blue robes found a yellow box with a red ribbon on it. _Oh god,_ it was the Land of Honey's gift. A formal robe made from high quality silk, but it was an eye sore: honey yellow with white and red trim.

He put it on with short geta sandals and walked over onto the high rise balcony area where they normally had dinner with the rich and fat. He found a low to the ground table with cushions as the seat, sitting on a cushion was a young man his age with long bright blonde hair and baby blue eyes wearing a similar robe to him.

"If it isn't the Rainbow Princess Yuki," He said with a shit eating smirk. "Come sit, have some sweets, and we can talk about boys."

"If it isn't Dateless Dante." He said walking over and sitting down, "You would want to talk about boys since you can't even get a girl to speak to you for longer than a minute."

That wiped the smirk off his face, "Always got a comeback, huh?" He said and turned to look at his sister. "Kyu, come on, we can finally eat."

There were three cushions, the Land of Honey had a Prince and Princess. The younger Princess was looking out over the balcony on her tip toes. She turned to them and ran over jumping on her cushion happily. "Yuki!" She said excitedly as she saw him, "Father says I can now wander my castle alone! I found all these nifty things," She said taking out a bunch of fancy knick knacks and a few ninja tools.

"Hello Kyu, it's nice to see you. May I see these ones?" He asked, she nodded and he took three senbon, two kunai, and a shuriken from the table and set them far away from her. He gave Dante a look saying; you're a terrible brother.

The little girl was only eight, but her father was still trying to set her up with Yukirei who was almost double her age at this point. These kinds of things were what upset Yukirei the most . . .

"You always look at me like you're better than me," Dante said gritting his teeth

"That's because I am better than you. You always come looking for a fight, not that it would be fair." He said shrugging, as the maids came over and began to serve them foods from both countries mostly fruit, real dishes from the Snow, and sweets from the Honey.

"Yeah, I'd fill you with more holes than a bad fanfiction before you even got close." He said with a smirk as he rubbed a glowing blue jewel on his necklace. Yukirei knew its name: Yumi Magatama a sacred treasure of his land much like his very own Airisu no Tsurugi.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Yukirei asked, David just waved his question off. "Whatever, I would run in close and cut you before you could draw your first breathe, let alone an arrow." He said as he picked up a grape and went to eat it, but a shuriken flew between his fingers destroying the grape and it stuck into the wall behind him.

". . ." Dante was looking all innocent as he went to grab a plate. At the moment he picked it up Yukirei moved when he wasn't visible he took a kunai and sliced the plate clean in half. The bottom half of the plate clattered as it fell in his lap.

". . ." They gave each other a long ominous look as Kyu innocently reached over and began to munch on a rice cake.

"Are you two gonna fight again?"


	2. Hiro Miyamoto and General Berri

**II**

~3 Months Later~

It was a glorious day for the Land of Spring, the Queen's only son Prince Yukirei Kazehana had just become a man. The age of sixteen years signaled that he could finally marry or rise to kingship alone, but no news of either event had come to the ears of the masses. Nor was there any truth to rumors floating in the air, gradually it had been accepted that this was a simple celebration for the Prince's birthday!

Many neighboring nations were invited to the festivities; it had just started to become autumn and temperatures fell. However the Land of Spring was forever toasty and warm, a welcomed relief by the vistors from other lands.

A fetival was established; civilians and shinobi alike were enjoying themselves. Queen Koyuki was chatting with old friends when Yukirei returned from getting ready for the long day ahead; "It's so nice to see you here! I wish you could stay longer to enjoy the food and festivities!"

"We're actually on a mission towards Iwagakure, the Tsuchikage was just assassinated. We wanted to stop by before we conducted an investigation," said Sasuke; while wearing his new standard look with a cloak, headband, and hair style blocking out his rinnegan.

"I apologise again for not assisting in the Great Ninja War, surely my technologically advanced Samurai could've helped." Queen Koyuki said with a sad look in her eyes.

"Don't apologise, you abandoned the Ninja Military ideals anyway. It was called a Ninja War, not the Great Ninja and Samurai War." The Seventh Hokage Naruto said with a bright grin, he purposely refused to mention that the Land of Iron has asisted in the war with their samurai to keep from hurting her feelings.

"We would've done fine," Prince Yukirei said walking out wearing a tight form fitting long coat with the buttons binded tightly on his torso to show off his physic under the clothes. He looked good, it was very regal, but it also looked like he was ready for a fight. "Do not sell us short Shinobi."

"Yukirei don't be rude! These are the incredible shinobi who brought me home when I was your age; Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. They were only in their preteens when they pulled it off," Queen Koyuki said through a smile.

"I see," Prince Koyuki got on his knees and bowed before the three adult memebers of Team 7. "I apologize for my rude behavior; I thank you for saving my mother's life those many years ago."

"Y-You don't have to thank us!" Sakura said waving her hands, "We're were just doing our job!" She may have been saying that, but she secretly enjoyed it. "Say, weren't you Master Sora in that film; Born in Exile?" Yukirei groaned a little as he looked away cheeks red, "You are! My daughter loves you, or your character I should say."

". . ." Sasuke was staring at the boy for a long time. Seeing Yukirei and Koyuki together, they looked plenty alike asife from a few key details such as skin tone or facial shape. It was odd, but something was strange about the prince to him. "Let's go. We have a murder to investigate before this ruins the many years of peace we managed to hold onto."

"See you later Queen Koyuki," Naruto waved over his shoulder as Sasuke and Sakura followed. "Next time I'll being Boruto and Himawari, and their kid Salad!"

"It's Sarada!" Outside the doors Sakura looked concerned at Sasuke, "Is something wrong Sasuke-kun?"

"No, nothing is wrong." Sasuke said sharigan eye burning brightly, he leapt far off with Naruto and Sakura in tow. They needed to move fast before the Sixth Great Ninja War was set off.

Yukirei sat next to his mother crosss legged on the floor, shortly after the ninja left the room. The nobles and royalty from the neighboring countries were ushered in.

"From the Land of Honey; Kosuka Kinana! From the Land of Wind; the Kaze Daimyo! From the Land of..."

It persisted for a good 2 hours as a large half circle was formed facing the balcony where fireworks would set the night on fire as soon as it grew dark, but now Yukirei had to give a welcoming speech before the royal familiees of twelve different countries including his own. He had to practice this for a good three months, he practiced infront of many crowds to get this right.

He stood up and walked to the center, with various Princesses were shooting eyes at him, the various Princes were sizing him up. There was one Prince giving him the eyes as well, and even a little Princess bored asking her mother where the food was.

Prince Yukirei cleared his throat as he stood on the balcony with eyes on him from every direction around him. "Today is the day I have become a man in the eyes of not just my country, but many of yours. Its said that I will soon rise to be a king, one way or another, but there is still much for me to learn. I shall take my birthright when I fell as if I'm ready, however if this country should need me to do so. I will not hesitate to seize my kingdom and protect it." It was getting powerful, inspiring, and intimidating.

Yukirei closed his eyes leaving them in suspence before he smiled warmly, "Should that time ever come you may all rely on me. Be today you are all here to enjoy the festivities in honor of such occasion. So let us close this quickly so that we may continue to enjoy ourselves and each other's company. I look forward to keeping the peace between us all!" Cheers followed him, he waited a bit before continuing. "I look forward to be the one workng with you all," He gave the various single kings a glance.

As if to tell them; _"You can keep your hands of my Mom if you planned on making a move. I will be King of my Land, not you."_ He received challenging glances back, but he ignored them.

"I would like to propose a toast; to my mother for having what it takes to keep a nation in one piece whilst raising a troublesome teenage boy!" That drew many laughs, "I love you Mom."

"To Queen Koyuki Kazehana!" All the Royals raised their glasses and took a drink, "TO QUEEN KOYUKI KAZEHANA!" The people outside the castle yelled, Prince Yukirei's speech was a rousing success. With him walking back the food was served.

It was still mid day as everyone mingled, spoke of political affairs, or shared interesting tales. Yukirei was continously shakng hands and congradulations, it wasn't for a whole hour he was able to get food for himself.

He approached the long table of food from various nations taking rice with honey ham from the Land of Honey, "Excuse me Prince Yukirei." Turning around was a girl; "Happy Birthday."

"Thank you Princess..." He had forgotten her name, he clearly had a look of confusion on his face.

"Oh I'm not a Princess, I work for you. I'm one of the few Land of Spring Shinobi left; we've never met. I'm here to protect you incase anything should happpen, but I wanted to meet you. My name is-" Yukirei was going to thank her, but suddenly 2 girls move in pushing her into the crowd.

Yukirei was surprised there was a Land of Spring Ninja at all, let alone a female ninja that worked for him? It was certainly odd. She had firey orange hair with black tstreaks of hair intergrated with the rest. She was wearing an black and yellow Kimono with a sealed tanto tied to her back. The kunoichi smiled and vanished, "Hello Prince Yukirei!" said one of the 2 girls who made themselves the center of his vision, "My name is Ku Kinana Princes of the Land of Honey."

"And my name is Yunega from the Land of Dreams. We were wondering if you had to fall in love with one of us, who would it be?"

Yukirei wasmn't listening, he was looking for the kunoichi. After a brief look around he knew he wouldn't find her again, he turned to the two of them. "I happen to be attracted to a specific type of girl, I'll leave it a secret for now. Wouldn't want to spoil the fun, just know it's pretty common in other lands." With that he left them to their curiosity as he went to get himself some tea.

A lingering woman across the table smirked, **"We're leaving. I have preperations to make..."**

It grew dark with Yukirei lost in eating, speaking with other noblemen, or looking for that Kunoichi. It wasn't till it was dark that he gave up, "Yuki." He turned to see his mother, "Are you too old to dance with your mother?" Yukirei shook his head as the two of them took to the floor, the two of them danced like they've done it many times. Which was the truth, many times Yukirei saved his mother from dancing with other nobles and kings.

"Oh look it's dark, time to set of the fireworks!" She said sitting with her son on a mat as the first firework went off with a residual BOOM!

The remaining awake royals; mainly those who wanted to make a late night move on the Queen or the Prince watched the fireworks and in the backs of minds their targets were in their wision.

It was something that Yukirei hated, the two of them always felt eyes on them. They weren't people, they were goals, objectives, or objects of desire in the eyes of their peers. It was because both of them refused to be interested in relationships, nobody would take the hints.

The fireworks persisted as the rest of the world faded away; Yukirei leaned on his mother forgetting about everything except just enjoying his mother's company. He didn't care, he spent so much time training to protect his mother he had spent any meaningful time with her at all recently. He was an awful son, he thought misablely, but as if she read his mind Koyuki Kazehana hugged her son Yukirei Kazehana warmly.

As the grand finally went off the festivities started to die down, but not everything was so smooth. As the last of the lights died a new light appeared, the entire sky was set alight by burning red chakra in the shape of a dragon.

Yukirei got up; Koyuki looked shocked. "No, but that place is secret!" She said, turning around. "Everyone stay calm!" An explosion of chakra in the sky threw everyone standing onto their backs or stomachs except Yukirei who stood strong.

A figure of a woman standing on a wire was infront of them all was silohetted behind the red light. "Prince Yukirei! You are cordially invited to OUR wedding in six months! You and I, Queen Kagero of the Dragon Empire accross the Scarlette Sea! I expect to see you there within' six months or every last soul in your country will be frozen forever! But first the rings!" Yukirei in the midst of drawing his katana was suddenly in pain as molten gold flew onto his finger burning a ring onto his left hand ring finger.

A red crystal dome was starting to form around the sky, "I don't think so!" Yukirei leapt at her drawing his katana!

"No! My Prince she's too strong!" That Kunoichi leapt to Yukirei grabbing him, making him fall early onto a patroling dazed spear guard recruit.

"I see, I can't very well leave you alone." Queen Kagero snapped her finger as a Red Orb of chakra formed around the three of them, "See you in Six Monthes Sweetheart. I need to prepare the Wedding of the Millennia, Ciao!"

She held her hand up in the air as a portal opened, some serpent like dragon flew out and flew toward the three of them. Yukirei got up and summoned Airisu, but before he could do anything the dragon dove into the ground. ". . ." Yukirei looked around as the ground beneath the three of them broke apart and the dragon swallowed the three of them before flying skyward. Yukirei tumbled around with his screaming...associates. Yukirei tried to cut the inside, but a hard heavy object hit him in the back of the head and everything went black.


	3. Team Seven and Sayomi Tora

**Chapter Three - Team 7 and Sayomi Tora**

The three strongest ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village had finally arrived in the Land of Earth; they were tired, hungry, and covered in dust as the winds blew dust all over them. Thankfully they had packed hooded traveling cloaks, complete with scarfs, otherwise their clothes would have been just as crusty and browned as the valley they walked through.

Naruto paused sensing something, he held his hand up to stop Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke's scanned with his sharingan looking for any incoming attacks, Sakura pulled down her scarf and kept a weathered eye out.

The sounds of flying shuriken came from behind, Sasuke drew his sword of kusanagi and in two slashes deflected the projectiles that were on course for his wife. Sasuke stood guard as Naruto made two shadow clones that quickly rushed their hidden attackers.

The two clones rushed over the ridge out of sight and a massive whirlwind of white dust shredded them into smoke, Naruto let his guard down and smiled "Stand down team, it's old friends." He said as Sasuke also let his guard down sheathing his blade. "HEY OLD MAN, WE KNOW IT'S YOU!"

Slowly a tiny aged man floated up accompanied by two stone ninja: Kitsuchi, Kurotsuchi's father and Akatsuchi, Kurotsuchi's former partner. "It's about time you guys brought Sakura," the old man said as he cough up a little of his own dust.

Akatsuchi carried the old man on his head as he jumped and landed before Team Seven cracking the stone beneath his feet. Kitsuchi launched himself with a fist made of stone and landed on the other side of the team, "You guys need to hurry. We need to figure out who attacked Kuro, but she was alone!" Akatsuchi exclaimed holding his arms in the air.

"Why was she out alone?" Sasuke asked taking his hood and scarf off.

"Kurotsuchi is just as stubborn as her grandfather, refuses to be watched." Kitsuchi said before he jerked his head in a direction, "Follow me for the fastest possible route." He lead them to a solid sandstone wall and made a tunnel in the exact shape of the fat Akatsuchi complete with the old man atop his head and began to walk through.

"Wow, is this a secret tunnel used by the stone ninja?" Naruto asked as he also put up his hood and scarf.

"Nope, Kitsuchi is making this hole as he goes. We're literally walking through a mountain, he's the one who insisted we camp out and wait for you three." Akatsuchi said with a carefree smile.

"She's our family, that's why." Onoki said as Kitsuchi said nothing and focused on making the tunnel, in about ten or fifteen minutes they breached the mountain and found themselves in a restaurant's dining room that had been built into the side of the mountain.

The opening had appeared right next to one of the stone tables, the guests currently eating jumped startled by their arrival. "What the?! What is this?!" said one of the guests looking understandably upset.

"Sorry, I'm not sorry." Kitsuchi said as he tunneled his way through their table making their food and drinks spill all over the floor. He turned to Team Seven, "This way quickly, to the hospital."

He ran out of the hospital as the other five followed quickly, the Hidden Stone Village was a very crude type of beautiful with each building being a small mountain surrounded in even more gargantuan mountains!

"This place is incredible," Sakura said as she marveled at the village. It was also her first time being here, Kitsuchi slid down the slope of one of the mountains and jumped to another peak using another stone fist launcher. He landed on the other peak and with Akatsuchi's help made a stone bridge for Team Seven to cross.

A few more bridge constructions and they entered a spiraling drill shaped building that must have been the hospital, "We're here with the Leaf Doctor." Kitsuchi said as soon as they entered, the stone nurses nodded.

"This way to the Tsuchikage!" The nurses lead them to the dead center of the building, where it would be hardest to be attacked from the outside and found Kurotsuchi lying unconscious wrapped in bandages all over her legs and shoulder.

"I need a fresh pair of scrubs, her file, and a place to clean up." Sakura said as she followed the nurses into another room.

"Let's go, we're crowding the room." Onoki said as he punched the top of Akatsuchi's head. "Especially you fatso," Akatsuchi just nodded and walked out to the hallway.

After a brief break Naruto decided to break the silence. "So nobody saw the assailant?" Naruto asked with it just being him, Sasuke, Onoki, and Akatsuchi. Kitsuchi refused to leave his daughter's side, "Also if nobody was with her how did you know she was in danger?"

"We found her in the dead of night, Kurotsuchi never trains past midnight. Her attacker left her alive, she had been badly beaten, but it gets worse. Her attacker branded her with some kind of mark, we haven't detected any chakra within the mark, but it's definitely supernatural." Onoki said as he began to float up off of Akatsuchi's head, "Let's go to the scene of the crime. I think you two can may be able to make sense of what we saw."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other before they nodded and began following Onoki and Akatsuchi as the party of fourtheir way to the scene of the crime. Naruto and Sasuke had to navigate the frustratingly difficult architecture of the stone village till they reached the base of the Tsuchikage mountain.

From there they had to climb the stairs, "I hate stairs." Sasuke grit his teeth, "It just had to be on the tallest peak." The reched the top to find a completely flattened training arena, they found it crawling with living stone creatures that were working on breaking up the once nicely leveled and evened floor.

"What are those things?" Sasuke asked as Onoki held up his hands making a white dust cube and sent it out, bouncing and spinning like a dice breaking the golems apart.

"We don't know, they're living rock entities that keep moving stuff. Like they're trying to reform the peak of this mountain, ever since Kurotsuchi was attacked these things have appeared and won't stay dead." Onoki said, as he floated down to the center. "Akatsuchi clear up their mess, the big guy picked up the massive rocks and threw them off the side of the mountain in the opposite direction of the village.

Naruto could see more rock monsters slowly climbing up the mountain side, he sent two clone to kick them off and study them in hopes of figuring something out.

When the remains of the creatures and their work was clear up they could see a dusty training area, but a strange circle was burned into the floor. "It looks like a summoning circle, but something is off." Sasuke said as he looked it over with his sharingan, "I'm not detecting any chakra." He looked to Onoki, "This wasn't here before the attack?" Onoki shook his head, _No._

Naruto's clones burst as the knowledge rushed to his head, "Those things are also not made from chakra. Do you think it's magic?" He asked as he also began to look around rubbing the walls hoping to clear away any dust.

"We need to call it something till we figure out exactly what it is, so magic it is." Sasuke said as he made the hand seals for a fire technique. "Fire Art: Flame Surge," He blew fire all over a wall charring the stone black with soot.

"Got something Sasuke?" Naruto asked as he walked next to him.

"I think so, look," In the black soot wall there were incredibly thin scratched lines that were made visible due to the contrast.

"Akatsuchi, think you can make these lines more defined?" Naruto asked turning to the big guy.

"Uhhm, I'm not so good with stone manipulation, but I can try." He took out a kunai and slowly began to scratch the lines chiseling the stone to make the lines thicker.

Naruto and Sasuke shared an: "you've got to be kidding me" look; this was gonna take a while. Onoki must've thought so too because he sat on the side of the training grounds, "I'm just gonna rest my ey-" He didn't even get to finish: "eyes," as he promptly passed out.

Naruto sighed and sat on the side of the mountain also sending a clone to assist Akatsuchi with the kunai chiseling. Sasuke sat next to him and began to take out a book and read it.

"What're you reading?" Naruto asked looking over reading a few lines. It was mostly dialog from what he could see, but slowly it looked familiar. "Is that _Tales of a Gutsy Ninja_?!"

"It is," Sasuke said looking over at Naruto. "Sarada has been bugging me to read it ever since I took her to go see the movie, I made the mistake of saying I didn't get it in front of her and she demanded I read the book. She even gave me her copy."

"I saw the movie also, it was great!" Naruto said with a big grin, "Yukirei did good as Naruto in the story." Slowly a silence fell over them, Sasuke went back to reading before Naruto brought up something that had been bothering him. "Sasuke, you haven't stopped using your Sharingan since we left the Land of Snow, what's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," Sasuke said looking irritated as he put a bookmark and closed the book. "Ever since the visit it suddenly activated on its own and I've been unable to deactivate it, as long as I don't focus on it, it shouldn't drain too much chakra to be hazardous. Now if you'll excuse me and let me read," He said as he opened the book and resumed reading.

Naruto nodded and grinned, Sasuke was totally into it. "Hmm, Yukirei's birthday festival should be happening around this time. I wonder what it's like," He said to himself as Sasuke ignored him.

~The Land of Snow~

Sayomi was having a time, whether the time was good or bad she'd yet to decide. She was wearing a formal orange and black yukata as she ate her favorite food sushi with grounded up sesame seeds mixed into the rice. The food was good, the fact she couldn't relax and enjoy it was a pain.

She stuck to the wall like a wall flower as she watched Yukirei greet each individual guest that wished to make their presence known to him. Yukirei carried a genuine looking smile as he shook the hands, hugged, or kissed the cheeks of each guest that came to him. Sayomi couldn't imagine being in his spot, all these handshakes, how filthy were their hands before they shook his. All the germs on his hand, let alone his lips, imagining the germs on her hand made Sayomi's skin crawl.

Yukirei's talents of being an actor were really paying off here, it was Sayomi's job to make sure to protect Yukirei incase one of these nobles suddenly pulled a knife on him. It shouldn't happen with the Castle Guard searching each guest for weapons before they entered, but just in case Sayomi was here.

Finally it looked like Yukirei was free, "PRINCE YUKIREI KAZAHANA." Great, it was the Land of Honey King, Shirou Kinana. The short pudgy man shook his hand vigorously, "Kyu say hello to Yukirei." The little girl walked and held out her hand like she was waiting for Yukirei to take her hand a kiss it, Yukirei let his smile falter for a second before it was back up and he knelt down kissing the back of her hand.

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying yourselves, but where is Dante?" Yukirei asked looking around behind them.

"Oh, I'm afraid he couldn't make it. He claims to have contracted a stomach flu and wished to stay in our vacation home, although he was clearly acting." Shirou said shaking his head. "I'm sure he was just embarrassed from the last time he was here. Please take no offence," He said with a bow, Kyu mimicking the same bow.

"No offence taken, although I did wish to make peace with him." Yukirei said with a warm smile, "Oh well, next time, please do enjoy yourselves and the food. The fireworks should start soon," He said as he finally began to move. He reentered him home to wash his hands, Sayomi followed him doing her job.

As she waited in the hallway Yukirei called out to her, "You're the Snow Ninja from the other day." He said as he washed his hands, "Thanks for the save."

Sayomi didn't expect this, there was nothing about interacting with him in her mission statement. "Think nothing of it your majesty" She said, "I was merely doing my duty."

He walked out and looked at her, "Are you on duty now?" He asked, Sayomi nodded. "I apologize, I'm sure you'd rather be out enjoying yourself, but you're stuck watching me."

"It's nothing my Lord, it's a pleasure to simply watch from, the balcony. I simply wouldn't know what to do if I were there myself!" She said bowing to him, he look contemplative before he smiled coming up with some idea.

"The best thing about being an actor is spotting it yourself," He said as he walked over to his room and came out with his katana. Sayomi watched him curiously, he handed his sword to her. "Can you seal things away?" He asked, again Sayomi nodded.

She knew basic sealing techniques like sealing away ninja tools and books; a sword wouldn't prove too difficult. "Good, seal this up, if there is any trouble I want you to find me and throw this to me. Understand?"

"Understood Milord, but why are you tell me this?"

"Because I want you to go out and enjoy the festivities, also drop the act. The fake meek lady voice doesn't suit you," He said walking past her and opened the door.

"But milord," She paused as Yukirei turned his head to look back at her. She sighed, "Thanks. I appreciate it your majesty."

"You don't need to worry about me, I can stay alive long enough for you to find me. Also, just call me Yukirei," with that he walked back out to get himself some food.

Sayomi didn't really know what to do now, _I suppose I go into town_. She left the castle and walked around the many stalls with games, delicious smelling unhealthy foods, and people all around were running from stall to stall.

Sayomi decided to try a deep fried sweet roll, it was so sweet and crunchy. The smell clung to her nose and made her teeth hurt, but it was so delicious. Like biting into a cake made of cookies, _I can maybe have just one more._

She began to go from stall to stall also enjoying the games, she won herself some money with knife throwing game where she had to get it to go through six rings being tossed around. Her ninja training had started to pay off.

She was enjoying herself so much that time flew quickly until she heard a loud _BOOM_. She spun around quickly on alert, but slowly started to calm down. It was just the fireworks, she stood by and watched them. She remembered reading somewhere the people wished upon fireworks the same way they did to shooting stars. She clasped her hands together to her chest; _I wish I could find my family, even just one of them . . ._

While she made her wish a child next to her started to jump up and down pointing. "Whoa look at that lady! She's flying!" A kid excitedly said as Sayomi looked up, a woman silhouetted by the moon was menacingly standing in midair. She was making her away to the castle! Sayomi began to run back to the castle following the lady close behind, she didn't like where this was going.

By the time she reached the castle the woman was yelling something about marriage, all the guards were on high alert. At the front gate was Hiro, "Sayomi? Shouldn't you be protecting Prince Yukirei?" He asked, Sayomi nodded. "What are you doing outside the castle?"

"Just let me pass," She said as Hiro opened the gate for her and followed close behind her. She threw her yukata off and was just in her suit now, Yukirei was standing with one foot on the railing. He saw her and held out his hand, she unsealed his katana and threw it to him.

He drew his sword and pointed it out at the mysterious woman, "What nonsense are you spouting woman?!"

She got into a relaxed sitting position, "You heard me clearly the first time Prince Yukirei Sosetsu Kazahana. You are to be my husband in six months time, otherwise I will utterly destroy your home and everyone who stands on this ground tonight. What is your answer my dear?"

Yukirei grit his teeth, "Here's your answer." He leapt at her purple chakra streaming off his body. He was gonna reach her, no doubt, but a terrible feeling of dread overcame Sayomi. This woman was not only powerful and dangerous, but highly unpredictable.

"Prince Yukirei!" She called out as she activated her chakra armor, the device on her wrists dispensed ninja wire with kunai as weights. She ground the edges together to dull them and threw the kunai tied wire like a bola ensnaring the Prince, she pulled hard as she could bringing her prince down to earth.

"What the-?!" Yukirei looked down at the ground approaching fast, Hiro got under the prince and caught him. "What was that about Ninja?"

"Sayomi what is going on?" Hiro asked looking right at her.

"It was too dangerous, Prince Yukirei, if you must fight her, I think we should work together." She said, Hiro untangled the Prince and looked up at the woman.

"Count me in as well," He said taking his naginata off his back. The Prince looked plenty irritated, but he nodded and took a stance sheathing his katana behind his back.

The woman watched all this with a curious look, "It would appear you have found your two retainers already. No matter, I was willing to beat you within an inch of your life, but I don't feel it necessary. I'm just gonna take your home as a little incentive, to follow things my way." She held her hands up to the sky as the moon behind her went completely dark, or it just appeared that way at first. It was just a circular disc of black, silver, and purple energy. "Bahamut!"

Out of the disc came a massive serpent with wings? "Dragon!" Hiro yelled as he backed up a little intimidated, the dragon dove for them with its maw as big as a small house. The darkness quickly enveloped her as the dragon flew up high, while Sayomi and Hiro sat in its mouth is made another round to grab Yukirei who had dove to the side.

The woman appeared next to him, "Can't forget your admission." She grabbed his hand as he began to scream in pain, a purple smoke began to rise from her grip on the back of his hand.

"Until we next meet my love, ciao!" She kicked him with her leg raised high to the sky into the maw of the dragon. It snapped its mouth shut around the three of them and Sayomi knocked her head on something, maybe on of the dragon's teeth? Whatever it was, she slipped in unconsciousness.


	4. The Stolen Kingdom and Prophecy of Eight

**Chapter Four - The Stolen Kingdom and Prophecy of Eight**

Yukirei hissed and blinked back tears as he held his seared hand. The tumbling through the darkness inside the black dragon and they were moving fast from what he could feel, he tried to call upon his bloodline limit but without any natural light to refract his chakra he couldn't use any of his techniques. He drew his katana, it was a simple chakra blade from the Land of Iron. Yukirei was about to make a cut, but something spoke to him inside his head. _DON'T DO IT YOU HAVE FRIENDS IN HERE!_

_What? _He stopped channeling his chakra sword since the voice had a point. After a brief moment he felt them rise and the three of them were dropped onto the ground. He landed on the hard dirt with a thud, that dragon had spat them up on a mountain far from Sosetsu, but close enough to see everything clearly.

The other two that got eaten with him were close by: the ninja unconscious had landed on the castle guard who was struggling to readjust with the ninja also weighing him down. Yukirei took a stance ready to fight the dragon, but it had left them. ". . ." Yukirei picked up his sheath and put away his katana, he looked at his home before he noticed something horrifying.

A massive rift was opening above the castle and these three colossal arms descended from the rift and scooped the capital city Sosetsu like it was a toy sitting in a sand box. "No!" Yukirei said as he began to run towards his home. He started to slide down the slope of the mountain only to end up tripping and rolling down the hill ruining his attire and cutting himself on a few rocks on the way down.

He reached flat land tumbling back to his feet as kept running, he ran as fast as his legs could make him go until he reached a cliff, he skidded to a stop as the mysterious woman rose up riding her dragon. "You, stop this! Stop this right now!" He demanded drawing his sword as chakra flared across its edge.

"Hmmmm," She looked with mock thoughtful face, "Nope! You'll get it back when matching rings adorn our hands, it'll be my wedding gift to you."

". . ." This was a nightmare come true, everything Yukirei feared about the other nations hounding him and his mother for their kingdom was coming true. "What must I do to convince you otherwise?" He asked sheathing his blade, she snapped as a couple creatures made of black energy surrounded him from smaller rifts.

"Do not put away your sword Yukirei, I need it, I need you, and you will meet me across the Scarlet Sea in half a year's time." She smiled as she reached into her suit and pulled out a scroll from between her breasts. "Here, just in case you need a reminder." She threw it to him, the scroll was warm. "Now try not to die and don't betray me. You know what happens if you do," She said looking at the castle as it was completely pulled into the rift and it closed. Just a crevasse where his home used to be . . .

She made another rift and the dragon dove through it with her disappearing, the creatures that had been waiting jumped for Yukirei. "Your majesty, get down!" Yukirei ducked as the castle guard from earlier ran in and in one big swoop batted the creatures off the cliff into the crevasse below. "Are you hurt milord?!"

"I . . . I'm fine," He said as he sheathed his blade. The adrenaline wore off as the pain in his hand grew in intensity along with the pain all over his body from tumbling down a slope that was much bigger than he realized. The darkness reclaimed him as he fell passing out only just barely caught by the castle guard from earlier.

. . .

Yukirei didn't dream, he must've been too exhausted for even that. When he did wake up: he found himself sitting under the shade of a few trees on the mountain top where they had been originally thrown. Did that guard drag him all the way back up here? His pants and coat were completely torn up and dirty, he looked around and could see the Castle Guard and female Ninja sitting and chatting about what just happened.

"I don't know what those things were, but where do we go to for help? All of the royal families from the surrounding lands were also taken prisoner I think the only two who were not taken were the Daimyo for the Land of Water and Thunder." said the Guard leaning on his naginata.

". . ." The ninja was leaning against one of the trees, "I don't know. I thought this was all a dream, but its very real."

Yukirei got up groaning, "Milord." The guard said as he got up, "What should we do?" Yukirei tried to bring together everything in his head, he took off his coat and threw it down on the ground. He was just in dirty ruined pants and a black shirt now with the land of snow emblem on his arm.

He took a deep breathe, "We need to readjust." He said as he sat next to the ninja feeling defeated, "We need to do a little traveling and get some help." The other two nodded, "On this journey I don't want people knowing who I am. So it's just Yukirei Not Milord, Your Majesty, nor Prince Yukirei. Understand? It's just Yukirei." He asked looking at them.

"Yes Mi- Yukirei," said the Ninja. "I'm Sayomi Tora, just Sayomi is fine."

"Hiro Miyamoto," the Guard said. "Hiro is also fine."

Yukirei nodded as he stood up, "Let's go." He said as he got up and started walking down the trail of the mountain, the other two looked at each other as the followed him.

"Where are we going Yukirei?" The Guard asked following close behind.

"We're going to a small near by village where some former guards retired, we're gonna get some travelling supplies and go to the Land of Fire. My mother has some pretty important friends that may be able to help."

~The Land of Earth~

"Okay we're all done now!" Akatsuchi said happily, it was morning now with the sun just starting to rise. The clone looked incredibly irritated happy to be done, he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Naruto woke up to experience an entire night's worth of boring stories concerning Kurotsuchi and the Land of Earth's politics, he also experienced the immense feeling of wanting to punch Akatsuchi in the face.

The three of them: Naruto, Sasuke, and Onoki had gone into Kurotsuchi's office to catch some rest, but there was one issue. Everything was made of rock, "Ugghhh." Naruto groaned as he got up and stretched, knots in his back from the stone bench. Sasuke had wisely used a sleep roll on the ground over the bench and was sleeping like a baby. Onoki was sleeping in his plush comfy looking office chair.

Irritable and tired Naruto made a clone to wake them up and climbed the stairs to see the completed chiseling. Akatsuchi smiled blissfully with dark bags beneath his eyes. Naruto's animosity was slowly replaced: he felt impressed, Akatsuchi may be annoying and simple, but he was an incredibly dedicated worker.

Naruto looked at the message, "Oh god. It's all kanji," He said looking over the few symbols. "Akatsuchi can you read any of this?" He asked, the big guy just shook his head "no" and fell over on his back snoring loudly.

"Is it done?" Sasuke asked walking up stifling a yawn, "Did you actually use the bench?"

"Shut up," Naruto said bitterly. "Anyway, yes it is done, but it's all kanji. Can you make sense of it?" He asked, Sasuke looked it over.

"I can understand a few of these, but not the whole paragraph. I would need a dictionary, but I'm certain that Sakura can read this." He said as he rubbed his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, his sharingan had finally turned off. "Onoki is still passed out?"

Naruto shuddered as the memories of Onoki's blasting his clone with his dust jutsu came to him, "He wants to sleep more. Let's just check up on Sakura and see if she's free to read this."

They dashed around the mountains to the hospital where they soon found Sakura resting in a break room with a half eaten protein bar in her hand as she slept sitting in an uncomfortable looking stone chair.

"Sakura," Sasuke said leaning over close and tapped her arm.

"Ngh, Sasuke five more minutes . . ." She groaned turning a little.

"HEY SAKURA, WAKE UP!" Naruto yelled from behind Sasuke, Sakura immediately began swinging her fists looking really pissed.

Sasuke activated his sharingan and quickly dodged each and every swing, "Stupid idiot, what the hell was that yelling for!" She yelled as Sasuke managed to catch her wrists and quickly pacify her with a kiss, she calmed down as he pulled away. "Hahh, alright, I'm better." She said with a small smile.

"Are you free? We need you to read something," Sasuke said giving Naruto a glare.

"Yeah, I managed to bring Kurotsuchi back to a more stable state and all she will need is time and rest to be back on her feet, but we can't question her now. Maybe in the afternoon," Sakura said proudly. "Take me to the thing I need to read, because apparently you're both illiterate."

They lead her back to the top of the tallest mountain to see Onoki using his dust power to move the loud Akatsuchi out of the way, "How is my granddaughter?" He asked upon seeing them.

"She's gonna be just fine," Sakura reported with a big smile.

Onoki sighed in relief, "Thank you Sakura you're a lifesaver."

"I know," She said as she saw the wall with the chiseled kanji. "Hmm, it says: From the . . .

**From The Spirit World Eight Children Seek The Throne**

**From The Father A Challenge Is Set**

**From The Scarlet Sea They Cross**

**From The Ninja World They Are Sought Out**

**From The Blood Of Innocence The Rift Is Opened**

**From The Battlefield One Child Shall Ascend**

**From The Earth, Dragon, Sky, Phoenix, Ocean, Tiger, Flames, and Tortoise**

**From The Eight The Spirit World Shall Be Rend**

. . . shall be rend." Sakura said scratching her head, "Sounds like some kind of prophecy, but what is the Scarlet Sea? And the spirit world for that matter."

Sasuke wrote down what she wrote while Naruto copied the chiseling in a separate scroll, "These Eight Children. That doesn't sound good," Sasuke said as he folded the paper with the prophecy written.

"Any of this making sense to you old man?" Naruto asked turning to Onoki as he rolled up the scroll and put it away, the Old Man simply shook his head.

"I am just as clueless as you, but one this is certain . . . " He said taking a thinking position. Naruto and the rest turned to look to him. "I'm certainly hungry. How does breakfast sound?" He asked making the three want to facepalm, they were also hungry. In fact they hadn't eaten since yesterday's lunch, but this seemed kind of important.

"Yeah, breakfast sounds good."

They were eating at the restaurant that Kitsuchi tunneled into, in fact they were right next to the table that they destroyed on their way in. Naruto had a new type of ramen with spicy fish balls, it was okay, but nothing beat Ichiraku. Sasuke was eating riceballs with hot pulled pork filling, it was alright. While Sakura had a fresh salad with a special oil dressing unique to the Land of Earth, "We need to bring a bottle or two home."

"Are you gonna pour it on your Salad?" Naruto asked with a big grin.

"Of course, where else would we put it?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke groaned preemptively, "I don't know . . . I she would think she would appreciate it." Naruto said snickering, Onoki laughed right along side him.

"Hahaha salads," Onoki said eating a jumbo serving of rice and pulled sliced up beef. "I hate vegetables," It was pretty clear he didn't get it.

"No, you see, Salad is their-" Naruto's explanation of the joke was interrupted by Kitsuchi tunneling in from the wall right next to them.

"Kitsuchi is awake, she wishes to speak to you guys." He said simply while the rest of Team Seven struggled to recover from the the near heart attack he gave them. Onoki wasn't fazed as he finished his plate.

"Check please!" The old man yelled.

_This place is full of nut jobs! _Team Seven thought almost simultaneously.

The four of them were soon in the hospital with their food packed and waiting to be eaten, Kitsuchi was beaten with a broom and made to repair the tunnels he made and recreate the table he destroyed.

Kurotsuchi was sitting up in her cot looking out the window as Onoki flew in, "Don't scare us like that again. I'm suppose to die first, Stupid Girl." Onoki snarled.

"You don't need to worry about me Grandfather," She said with a smile. "He just caught me off guard is all," She looked to Team Seven, specifically Sakura. "Thank you for coming all this way, I'm sorry I couldn't greet you myself at the gate."

"We didn't use the gate, your old man tunneled right through a mountain to get us here faster." Naruto said with a big grin.

She smiled, "Sounds just like him." She took a deep breathe, "I need to get married to a stranger in six months or else this village will be turned to gravel." This certainly caught them all off guard.

"What?" Onoki asked raising an eyebrow, "Start from the beginning."

She nodded: "It started as an ordinary night of training. I was focusing on my techniques when this hunk man appeared, he was floating the very same way we can. It caught me off guard, but I asked him his name and why he was doing here.

He introduced himself as Asura Iwa-Kami, he asked if I was the Stone Shadow. I answered "yes," he then gets on one knee and asks for my hand in marriage. I obviously was surprised and ask why, he claims to have needed my help. Or else everything I know, including my village and family will be destroyed. Nobody threatens my home, so I attacked him, but he could move the earth like it was alive.

I had him until the earth did come to life; creatures made of the very stone I channeled came to life and swarmed me. I fought them as hard as I could, but pretty quickly I was over whelmed. When it was obvious I was beaten he made them back off, he said I must cross the scarlet sea in six months. Then he grabbed my hand and left me with this," She held up her hand with a strange mark on it.

It looked like four rectangles with four ovals making a odd looking flower, the center was just a short red line. ". . ." Onoki didn't know what to think, he turned to Team Seven. "Leave us. This is a discussion between the Tsuchikage, we will speak together more later, perhaps at the Chunin Exams."

They walked out into the hallway, "Alright to recap everything." Naruto trailed off to let his friends talk, Sakura wasn't totally caught up, and if she could add anything it would be now.

"We already knew some of this, but something tells me he wasn't here to attack her." Sasuke said leaning against a wall.

"She engaged him first and that lead to her hospitalization, also the rock beings were not hostile to you guys. Right?" Sakura asked as she left Kurotsuchi's file in the receptacle next to the door.

"What's our next move Naruto?" Sasuke asked,

After a brief pause Naruto sighed, "Well there isn't much else we can do. We came to fix up Kurotsuchi and we did, we also investigated the crime, and just got more questions. We should go home and continue preparing for the Chunin Exams, there's also that _other_ matter. If something goes wrong we will be have to be prepared for it and with the meeting of all Five Kage we can bring it to the attention of all five great ninja villages. If this is the second coming of the Akatsuki we should keep a sharp eye out., let's finish eating, say our goodbyes, and leave."

"We already have Naruto and Kuro in on this, it shouldn't be hard convincing Gaara, Darui, and Chojiro that this is a legitimate threat." Sakura added with Sasuke nodding in agreement.


	5. The Hidden Leaf Village part one

**Chapter Five - The Hidden Leaf Village part one**

With Team Seven starting their long arduous journey back home; Yukirei Kazahana accompanied by Hiro Miyamoto and Sayomi Tora make the very same trip, but with a little assistance from the family of Hiro.

The three of them had acquired some food from a small village nearby and made their way to Fort Sandayu from where Hiro came before being relocated to the now stolen capital city of Sosetsu.

"Hiro, where you truly not cut out for the position?" Asked the dark skinned and very muscular scar covered man: Captain Miyamoto. After a brief explanation that the castle was completely stolen away and that just the three of them made it out. Hiro's father thought it was all a joke until he recognized the Prince and his dead serious expression, "I see. What will you do now milord?"

"We're traveling to the Land of Fire where the Hidden Leaf's Hokage is a friend of our Queen. We're hoping to find some help, but we need supplies to make the trip." Hiro's father agreed and outfitted them with traveling packs, some traveling equipment, and fresh set of clothes for Yukirei. Simple dark green pants and a long sleeve black shirt to go beneath their dark green hooded traveling cloaks.

"You have our full support Prince Yukirei, we got a few horses, you take them and get our home back before it's too late. We'll do our best to keep the peace," said the Captain.

"Thank you Captain Miyamoto, I promise to return your son to you soon." Yukirei said beginning to breath easier as he got onto his horse.

"I-I can't ride a horse, I'm not great at controlling animals." Sayomi said nervously as she also made the horse's nervous with her attitude. Hiro's father picked her up and put her behind Hiro, "I, ah, thanks."

"Take care of your friends Hiro, we'll see you soon." Hiro nodded to his father and former comrades that waved them off as the two horses took off at great speeds as Yukirei used a map to navigate them to the fastest route to the Land of Fire. Their entire trip would take them two days with proper treatment of their steeds and avoiding all unnecessary conflicts.

After an uneventful night around a campfire on the Land of Fire border the very next day the trio had found themselves just outside the great wooden doors of the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Not exactly 'hidden' now is it?" Sayomi commented from behind Hiro, she quickly got off the horse and began stretching with a slight wobble to her legs. "I hope I never got to ride a horse ever again."

The horse snorted as if saying; _I wouldn't want you riding me anyway. I don't care!_ Hiro laughed a little as he too got off, "Want me to ask for a place to put our horses Yukirei."

Yukirei got off his horse and held the horse's reigns, "I don't think you'll need to." He said as two ninja came to meet them, they wore matching clothes with dark blue pants, long sleeve shirts, and a green combat jacket.

"What's your business?" Asked the one with a bandage across his nose bridge and crazy spiky hair.

"We're here to speak with Naruto Uzumaki, the Hokage." Yukirei said bowing with his eyes closed, "It's a matter of dire importance."

The two ninja looked at each other, if this was serious then there was a problem: "The hokage is currently on a mission. Can you tell us so that we can give it to him as soon as he arrives?" Asked the one with his hair almost completely covered up by his head protector.

"I cannot unfortunately," Yukirei shook his head. "If we may be permitted entrance we shall wait for him to return."

"We also need a place to store our steeds," Hiro added as he stroked the head of his mare.

"We don't really have horse stables, the only place I can think of is maybe the Nara or Inuzuka Clan. Leave them with us and we will make sure you know where they're staying. Can we get your name, nation, and occupation?" Kotetsu asked taking out a clipboard with some form on it.

"Hiro Miyamoto, Land of Snow, Ca- Personal Guard." Hiro said as he handed the reigns to Izumo. "Please do find them a safe place."

"Sayomi Tora, Land of Snow, Ninja." Sayomi said as she folded her arms looking around her. "This land is beautiful."

"Yukirei Kazahana, Land of Snow . . . I'm an actor." He said wishing not to be known as royalty.

"An actor? What could be so important that it requires the Hokage's attention? Wait is there a problem with an upcoming show?" Kotetsu pondered, "Or is it you wish to use our village for a movie of some kind?"

"The name sounds familiar," Izumo said tapping his finger on his arm as he took the reigns of Yukirei's horse.

"Precisely that," Yukirei said quickly. "Now may we enter? We've been traveling for two days straight now and wish to rest."

"Yes you may, some information so you don't get lost. The center is the shopping district, the western side is where most of the clans and training fields reside, the east hosts the Hyuga compound and private homes, the southern end where we are is the housing district you can find an inn here, and the north is the business district where the hokage tower also stands. You can find your way from here I'm sure," Izumo said as the horses began to pull at their restraints eager to follow the trio. "Hold up horsie!"

"Did you just say Horsie?" Kotetsu asked looking at him.

"Shut up and help me!"

"What do we do now Yukirei?" Sayomi asked putting up her hood as the three of them walked through the leaf village.

"Should we simply wait for the Hokage to return?" Hiro asked completely taking off his traveling cloak and folding it under his arm.

"We don't have time for that," Yukirei said. "We should go to the Hokage Tower and see if we can't find whoever is in charge while the hokage is away," He didn't take his coat off but the sounds of his stomach revealed itself alongside Hiro's stomach shortly after.

"Do we have time for food?" Hiro asked with an embarrassed smile.

"Yes we do," Yukirei said with a small grin. They found themselves a barbecue restaurant where there was apparently a small celebration taking place, the three of them got a table on the other side of the restaurant from party other loud guests.

It was one long table with six adults and three children, it looked like three families coming together. There was a big guy serving raw meat on the hot grill in the middle of the table with a dark skinned woman with red hair, they had their daughter with them. Next were two men talking about the chunin exams coming up, one had paperwhite skin and the other had a pineapple style hair cut.

With them were two women, both blonde, but one looked like she was from the Land of Wind. Also two children with them: two boys. Yukirei, Hiro, and Sayomi were the only customers aside from the big party.

A waiter came to them, "I apologize for the inconvenience, but due to the high demand from our other patrons your selection from our menu will be quite limited. Will that still be okay?" He asked nervously, "We understand if you'd rather take your business else where."

"Of course it'll be fine, what can we order?" Sayomi asked, Yukirei and Hiro were just hungry. They'd eat almost anything, the waiter explained that anything meat based was in short supply and would take a while to make. "Thank you can we get some tea to start?"

The waiter nodded and walked away, Sayomi leaned over. "Yukirei, please take off your cloak or at least put up your hood. It's not only rude and distasteful, but you're attracting attention. Those two men started talking about you," she said in a hushed tone.

"How can you tell?" Yukirei asked, "Also I'd prefer to not be recognized until after a few days or till we've meet the hokage."

"My ears are very sharp, they're wondering who you are," Sayomi said.

"They're looking at us now," Hiro said looking over.

"Don't look back," Sayomi said urgently.

"What's the issue? We haven't done anything wrong." Hiro asked.

"Yeah, unless you were planning on doing something wrong." Pineapple head said next to them suddenly, Sayomi and Hiro gasped, Yukirei jumped a little but said nothing. "A few of us got sharp ears too girl," He said folding his arms, "Now who are you and why the secrecy?"

"Our identities do not concern you, leave us." Yukirei said simply with a very slight edge to his voice.

"It does, especially when your presence could prove a threat to our village." The pineapple haired ninja said apparently on edge, "Are you gonna comply or must I arrest you?"

Hiro and Sayomi were actually nervous looking at Yukirei trying to tell him; _Just put up your hood! _But Yukirei didn't budge, "Is this your tactic Leaf Ninja? Threaten others into do as you request? You won't arrest us." Yukirei said with a cocky tone and a smirk.

"You think I won't?" He asked folding his arms and raising an eyebrow, "What makes you so sure?"

"You're in the middle of celebrating some achievement of your child I assume, you wouldn't ruin it by arresting some strangers who simply refuse to be identified." Yukirei said calling his bluff.

There was a long tense silence before he sighed, "You're lucky I'm busy." He said walking away, "If I catch you doing anything suspicious then you'll be in a cell the next hour."

Hiro and Sayomi let loose a great sigh, "Why Yukirei? Why did you have to make things so complicated?!" Hiro asked, as their waiter came.

"Are you ready to order now?" He asked as he brought them their tea.

"Yes I will have the artichoke potstickers with miso soup please," Yukirei said folding his menu and handing it to the waiter. Hiro and Sayomi quickly fumbled through their menus and ordered lemon seasoned fried fish on rice and two orders of sushi with crushed sesame seeds on the side.

Hiro sighed as he finally began to relax, he looked over and groaned. "Two more are coming this way," they turned to see the blonde hair woman in a purple outfit with the pale man, he carried with him a calm and friendly looking smile.

"Hello, my name is Ino Yamanaka and this is my husband Sai."

"Hello." He said with a hand raised in greeting.

"We just wanted to apologize for our friend Shikamaru, he's been under a lot of work related stress lately, and I assure you he didn't mean to antagonize you." Ino said with a big smile.

"It's fine," Yukirei said as he began to drink his tea.

"Great, now that that's settled don't mind m." Sai said as he reached over and grabbed the edge of Yukirei's hood. Sayomi grit her teeth and grabbed Sai's wrist very tightly stopping him. "Oh."

. . .

The pieces of the restaurant wall burst out as Sayomi and the still hooded Yukirei jumped away as Sai and Shikamaru followed them out. Hiro still sat at the table, "Oh come on!"

Sai and Sayomi immediately began to fight, Sai took out a scroll and a brush and immediately began to channel his techniques sending tigers made of ink at Sayomi. Sayomi activate the two chakra armor devises on her wrists, she held her hands in a finger gun type pose as she fired off senbon needles from her wrists bursting the ink tigers like she was shooting guns.

"I'm sorry Leaf Ninja," Yukirei said gritting his teeth. "Nothing against you, but I just realized I really got let off some stress." He took a stance, it was the Iaido style that Mifune taught him to use, it was a specific style of kenjutsu that is concerned with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard.

Shikamaru recognized this style and knew to be cautious, "Same here." To test the stranger Shikamaru made his shadow reach up trying to skewer Yukirei trying to test what kind of fighter he was.

Yukirei cut through the shadows easily, refusing to move to dodge. _Shadows eh?_ He called upon his bloodline limit as bright yellow flames coated his chakra blade. The light ate away at the shadows getting close to him, Shikamaru again tried to see if he could make the samurai step into the shadows of a tree, but Yukirei kept cutting through anything used.

"Hiro help us!"

"Choji get in there!"

Sayomi and Ino yelled simultaneously.

"Aww! Do I have too? The food is coming!" Hiro and Choji yelled back.

The other blonde haired woman got up and walked over to Hiro."What is this all about, tell me now!" She demanded to know, Hiro jumped a little surprised by her.

"Something about a hood! I'm not certain myself," Hiro said not liking his vulnerable spot at his table. If this woman attacked him he'd be nearly helpless. The woman instead took a giant antique model fan off the wall and folded it up walking outside.

"Wind Style: Blowing Gale!" She swung the huge fan and a huge gust of wind blew off Yukirei's hood revealing his face, the fan broke apart, but it had done its job.

Yukirei was about to step forward ready to cut Shikamaru just as the wind staggered him, he blinked the sun out of his eyes just as Shikamaru's shadows wrapped around him. "Gotcha."

"OH MY GOD! It's Yukirei Kazahana the Actor Prince!" Yelled the big boned girl with yellow eyes and red hair surprising Shikamaru and Sai enough to get them to stop fighting, Sai still had to dodge the senbon needles being fired at him until Sayomi realized that the fighting was paused. "Mom, quick, do you got a pen?!"

The woman fumbled a little before she pulled out a pen, the girl got a napkin and ran out to Yukirei. "I am your biggest fan, can I have an autograph please?!" Yukirei didn't really know what to do, he was caught.

Shikamaru grit his teeth, Chocho, you know this guy?"

"Who doesn't? He's Naruto from the Gutsy Ninja Movie," She said, "Let him go I need an autograph." Shikamaru stared at him before he recognized him and let him go. Yukirei stood up and gradually let his guard down put his sword away. "Will you please please please give me an autograph? I am your biggest fan!"

"Sure," Yukirei said taking the napkin and pen. "What's your name?"

"Chocho Akamichi," She said fists on her sides.

"Hmmm, to Chocho Akamichi. Thanks for being the first to recognize me in your village, big love for my biggest fan." He said out loud as he wrote it down crouching using his sword on his leg for a flat surface. "There you go!"

"So cool . . . am I really the first to recognize you?!" She asked stars in her eyes.

"Yup!" Yukirei said with a big smile, Sayomi examined him finding his smile to be completely real. "I'm glad to hear you enjoy my work."

Shikamaru put his shadow away and sighed, "You couldn't have just said something? Maybe tell me you didn't want to be recognized?"

"Was it not evident enough?" Yukirei asked annoyed, "I didn't tell you because I didn't want people to know who I was."

"All of this could have been avoided if you just took off your hood, so it's kind of on you!" Hiro yelled from his seat, "The food is here!"

Sayomi sighed in relief, "Sorry for grabbing your arm like that. I had to protect my Prince."

"Think nothing of it, I shouldn't have done what I did." Sai said with a smile as he walked over to his table.

Shikamaru also walked back with Temari scolding him for picking on an innocent celebrity. The two boys: Inojin and Shikadai had to listen to Chocho brag about her autograph before the two also got up requesting an autograph also just to shut her up.

Yukirei obliged, "There I got one too." Inojin said waving it for her to see. Sayomi apologized profusely for getting the restaurant wall broken and offered to help fix it for free, the manager just waved it off saying things like this happened all the time and told them to just enjoy their meals.

Yukirei ate his pot stickers with soup with his cloak off this time, just to avoid any future conflicts and draw anymore unnecessary attention. But now there was the potential that other people would recognize him in the street now, I guess this is _better than attracting violent ninja attention._

After the meal Shikamaru approached them one last time, "My wife says I should apologize. So I'm sorry, is there anything I can do to make it up to you mister Kazahana?"

"Can you bring me to the one temporarily in charge? I have some urgent matters that need to be discussed with the Hokage." Yukirei said as he left money for their food and a little extra for the wall.

"I can do that," He said sighing.

**Author's Note(s): I hope you found these new five chapter to be immeasurably better than the previous five, let me know how you think I did in a review. What do you think is coming up? Who is Yukirei's father? What of the Eight? I will say that any form of feedback greatly motivates me to keep writing and lets me know you would want to see more of it.**


	6. The Hidden Leaf Village part two

**Chapter 6 - The Hidden Leaf Village part two**

After a much needed lunch our heroes: Yukirei, Hiro, and Sayomi left the restaurant only to find Shikamaru and Temari waiting for them. Shikamaru stepped up hands in his pockets, "I will schedule you a meeting with the previous and currently acting Hokage: Kakashi Hatake. Just try to stay out of trouble and I will find you when it's time."

"Thank you, we truly appreciate your help." Sayomi said with a deep bow.

"Now, now. There is no need for that," Temari said holding up her hands looking embarrassed. "I am here to make you three an offer, but I must ask. Do you have a place to stay?"

At first neither of them said anything, but Yukirei coughed a little. "We kind of had to abandon our home in a rush," Yukirei said with a pained expression.

"Okay then. I was thinking the Land of Snow and Hidden Sand Village could make an arrangement. I'm the sister of the kazekage, you see. And you're the prince, surely we can make some kind of deal."

Shikamaru's eyes widened as he looked at her. _Damn, she made the offer first._ Temari looked back at him with smug look coupled with a wink, "What do you say?"

"With the current circumstances I'll take all the help I can get." Yukirei said folding his arms, "What did you have in mind exactly?"

"Oh we'll figure out the fine details another time, but for now let me help you out right now." She pulled out a scroll and unsealed a smaller scroll. She handed it to Yukirei, "This money is from my village to help your cause. I will help you out with more once I can, but this should be enough for you to temporarily settle down."

Yukirei handed the scroll to Sayomi, _I hope this doesn't come to bite us in the future._ "As long as everything stays within reason, but for now we're gonna see about a living situation. In fact," Yukrei's smile grew devious. "I already got a place in mind."

Shikamaru shrugged, "I'm off to schedule your meeting and return to work." Temari gave them a wave and they started to walk off, "You gave them the money from our last S mission."

"That's easy to replace, I can get that next week no problem. What I can't replace is a budding relationship between the Sand and Snow," She gloated.

Once they were gone Yukirei took a deep breathe. "Alright first thing's first a place to stay, groceries, clothes, and weapon utilities."

"Yeah," Hiro said cringing. "I need a bath," Sayomi nodded in agreement hugging herself not pleased with her own scent.

"Alright let's split up; I'll handle own temporary home, Hiro you get the food, and Sayomi get the things for our weapons. We can get our new clothes alone, let's split the money, and meet up here at sunset."

Sayomi nodded and unsealed the scroll to see a crazy amount of Ryo spill onto the floor, multiple bundles were spilling on the ground. "Oh wow," Hiro said as he quickly began to pick it all up. "Sayomi how much do S-rank missions usually pay?"

"I don't know, but I've never seen so much money." Sayomi responded wide eyed, "What are we gonna do with all this?"

"Buy what we need, save the rest, I'd rather not put my kingdom in debt," Yukirei said as he took a majority to get them a place to stay, Hiro and Sayomi took how much they thought they would need for their shopping spree.

~ Shikamaru ~

Through the business district Shikamaru and Temari walking together silently enjoying each other's company, slowly Temari drifted into him and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad you took a break to have lunch with us." Temari said looking up at him, Shikamaru put an arm around her and looked down smiling.

"I had a good time despite my little . . . argument, but it all worked out in the end." He said leaning down and gave her a simple, short, and sweet kiss on the lips.

"Don't over work yourself again, I know most everyone is either busy or away from the village, but if its too much you call me okay? Your hair will turn white once this is all over," She said as she pulled away. "I need to contact home about what just happened."

"Tell Kankuro and Gaara I said 'hello,'" Temari nodded and jogged off. Shikamaru sighed as he disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves and reappeared atop the hokage tower. On the roof Kakashi had been waiting for him, the sixth hokage was sitting on the railing carrying Hiruzen's old crystal ball. With him was the now grown up Kiba Inuzuka, the two were watching the trio from the crystal ball split up.

"What was with fighting a kid?" Kiba asked looking over at Shikamaru with a half questioning half disappointed look, "You're making us look bad man."

"We got more pressing matters," Shikamaru said before looking to Kakashi. "Has any progress been made figuring out where the chakara interference is coming from?"

"Unfortunately not," Kakashi sighed. "We need Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke home as soon as possible. We can't have the Chunin Exams here with every ninja's chakra control thrown off," He said putting the ball in his pocket after he lost interest in the three.

"Is that what it is? I thought I was just getting old," Kiba said with a big grin. "I'm going to be an old farmer before you know it, I got two horses on my clan grounds now and everything." He scratched behind his ear, "Either way I'm out of the loop. So what's going on?"

Kakashi signaled Shikamaru to explain, "There is something going on. Three months ago every ninja in the leaf village at one point started to fail every mission, remember?"

"Yeah," Kiba cringed. "I was in the middle of a mission when none of my jutsu started working, I almost died."

"A few of our ninja did die," Shikamaru said looking down at the ground. "But you can use all your jutsu again, right?" Kiba nodded, "It wasn't a one time thing, we all just grew used to it, we've adjusted. But all the foreign ninja entering our lands experience the same issue. Either we need to relocate the Chunin Exams to another land or we have visitors arive a week or two early in order to adjust, but we can't make that call. We need Naruto."

"So what's this got to do with me?" Kiba asked folding his arms.

"I want you to use that nose of yours to find Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Let them know to hurry it up, they're somewhere between us and the Stone Village. Find them and bring them home," Kakashi said as Kiba nodded.

"I'm your man for the job!" He said with a grin, "I'll leave immediately." He disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves, Kakashi sighed as they heard Kiba's yell. "YAHOOO!"

"We still haven't found the source of the interference, without our strongest sensory ninja there is no hope of pinpointing it either." Kakashi said folding his arms, "Any news on Karin's disappearance?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "A messenger bird came the other day. Jugo's still searching for her, hopefully she's still alive. Ino is good, but she's not as good as the red headed nut case."

". . ." Kakashi pulled out the crystal ball again and tuned it to Chocho's chakra signature, she was yelling to all her friends about something waving a piece of paper. This orb did not have any audio, nor could Kakashi lip read shouting. "Tell me about that boy? Chocho lost it when she saw him."

"He's an actor prince or something, Land of Snow." Shikamaru asked as Kakashi almost dropped the ball, "Kakashi?"

"You mean the son of the legendary Koyuki Kazahana? From Icha Icha Paradise?!" He asked gripping the ball, "Why is he here? Did he mention another Icha Icha movie?"

"Eh . . . " Shikamaru scratched the back of his head. _What the hell?_

~ Yukirei, Hiro, and Sayomi ~

Hours had passed, it was now dusk with Yukirei waiting outside the restaurant they were at earlier. "Yukirei," Sayomi said with a duffle bag on her shoulder. "I did everything as you asked. I got my clothes, things for Hiro's spear, and your sword." She looked eager and excited, "The selections are amazing here. Did you find us a place to stay?"

"It's a Naginata, not a spear." Hiro said as he turned the corner lugging two massive bundles of plastic bags, in his right arm was all their food, and in the left was his clothes. "Where am I lugging all this?"

"You're gonna throw out your back like that!" Yukirei scolded walking over and taking the food from him, carrying the mass in two hands. "Follow me," He lead them to the eastern district with the Hyuga Compound and all the fancy hotels where the rich foreign nobles would stay for the Chunin Exams.

"You managed to find a free place here?" Sayomi asked looking around impressed.

"Not exactly," Yukirei said with a smirk.

They walked to a very nice looking vacation home right next to a lake, Yukirei opened the door and they could see the dark dusty place. Sayomi's nose twitched as she started to sneeze, "This vacation home belongs to the Land of Honey, _Honey Moon _it's called. Once I found out this was here and I couldn't not get this for us. I'm sure Dateless Dante won't mind if we borrow it."

"How did you actually get access to it though?" Sayomi asked as she set her bags on the outside patio where the tables and chairs were covered up with sheets. There was even an outdoor fireplace, it would be dark soon they needed to turn on the lights.

"With a little bribing here and there, I got the power running, and the keys." Yukirei said with a victorious smile as he turned on the lights.

"Hmm," Hiro said looking it over. "A three story genkan house? That's odd, but it does give more space." He walked over and knocked on the wood, "Sturdy dark cherry wood frame, I really like the silk walls over the paper kind. It blocks more sound and keeps the heat better, but I wonder what they used for the flooring . . . "

Sayomi and Yukirei gave each other a look, "Let's just clean it up and admire it afterwards."

Sayomi elected to clean up the outside as Hiro and Yukirei cleared away most all of the dust opening the windows and sliding doors. Poor Sayomi couldn't stop herself from sneezing as she got close to the open windows and doors. She lit up the many oil lanterns and soon it looked like something out of every romantic couple's dreams when it came to honeymoon get aways.

Eventually she was able to comeback in and help Yukirei make the place feel homely. They uncovered all the furniture and brought out the tatami mats, meanwhile Hiro stocked the kitchen and immediately started to cook them a chicken stew after asking if any of them had issues with eating meat.

As the three of them sat around a table they all chanted _itadakimasu_ and started digging in. They ate in silence, there was hardly anything they could talk about: politics? farming? training? Their stolen home, finally Sayomi smiled.

"I know we're on a mission to rescue our home from a psychopath wishing to marry our Prince and all."

"Great opener," Hiro said flatly.

Sayomi ignored him, "but I'm having a good time. I never thought I would leave the Snow and have an opportunity to see all this," She said as she mixed the stew with her rice. "Its like one of my dreams come true . . . "

"What's the other ones?" Yukirei asked as he had cleared his plate fastest from not talking, he relaxed as he poured himself an iced tea and even filled up their cups.

"Well to travel and join the Chunin Exams was one, the other one is to figure out what happened to my family. I never heard of a Tora Family, but I imagine they must be in a foreign lane. Another reason to travel," She said with an optimistic smile.

Hiro looked uncomfortable as he ate, _am I the only one with a complete family?_ He sighed, "Let's try to not get too comfortable, like Sayomi said: we're on a mission to get our home back from a crazy person."

Yukirei nodded and got himself a new set of clothes and a towel, "I'll head to the bath house first." Hiro soon entered the bath house also and once both boys were out Sayomi entered by herself. Soon all three of them were clean up, well dressed, and they found himself just sitting around. "Is this how nobles feel? Bored with nothing to do?" Sayomi asked looking over at Yukirei.

She was wearing a pair of comfortable looking black pants with a sleeveless orange and white vest with a black waist tie. Her orange hair, which was normally shoulder length had been done to look like it was short with a couple of pins in the back, on her wrists were a simple pair of matching white bracelets. She looked good.

"Why are you asking me that?" Yukirei said sounding offended, "I'm always studying or training. The Library is most likely closed and miles away, also without proper lighting I don't think anyone would be happy with me swinging a sword blindly."

Yukirei was wearing a brand new regal dark blue sleeveless long coat with a black short sleeved shirt beneath with white combat pants. He also wore arm guards and black gloves with metal plating on the back of his hands. He got them engraved with the Land of Snow symbol, he looked like a cross between a samurai and a ninja.

"I agree, but I think I'm gonna turn in early. We did a lot today, but I hope we got a plan for tomorrow." Hiro said getting up, "We do got a plan right?"

"We're scouring the Leaf's library for any information we can dig up," Yukirei said as Hiro nodded. "I got the master bedroom on the third floor by the way."

Hiro nodded as he headed up the stairs. He had been wearing a simpler style of clothes with a long sleeved black shirt with dark green combat pants, but he did have a nice pair of boots on. He must've sprung for those since they looked both comfortable and nice, a difficult combination to come by.

Silence fell between Sayomi and Yukirei, she decided to unseal a stack of small books and began to read them quietly to herself. Yukirei followed suite and pulled out a silk scroll with gold rods, and green jade tops to the rods. "What's that you have there?" Sayomi asked looking at the incredibly ornate scroll.

"A gibberish poem about eight kids and a scarlet sea," Yukirei said sighing. "That woman gave this to me just before disappearing, when I saw it I was glad I could read kanji, but the message still makes little sense."

"Which is why we're going to the library," She said, Yukirei nodded. "Mind if I take a look?" She asked holding out her hand., Yukirei was about to roll it up and give it to her, but there was a sudden knock at the door. Yukirei gave her a look and walked over to the door, a hand on his katana as he opened the door a crack.

"Nice place you got here," Shikamaru said with a smirk. Sayomi looked over curiously, as Shikamaru was let in. "I didn't think the money we gave you could land a place like this."

"It's actually a friend's vacation home, Prince of the Land of Honey." Yukirei said as he set his sword to the side and scroll on the nightstand.

Shikamaru shrugged, "The acting hokage will see you now. Come with me," Yukirei nodded, Sayomi started to get up before Shikamaru added. "Just Yukirei for now," She looked to Yukirei for his command.

"I'll be fine," Yukirei said as he took the scroll and his sword with him just in case. He stepped out of their new home and tied the sword to his waist before he looked to Shikamaru, "I'm ready. Let's go."

Shikamaru and Yukirei took off; leaping from roof to roof. Shikamaru paid close attention to Yukirei's jumps. He was using his chakra to empower his jumps, but not in the same way as Shikamaru or any other Leaf ninja for that matter. Normally ninja used their chakra to stick the landing, relying their power to make the great leaps. However Yukirei seemed to be using a purple looking chakra to empower his own mobility and was simply landing just well enough with his own foot placement.

_ Just like those yellow flames, so this one has a Bloodline Limit. _Shikamaru kept this in the back of his head as they approached the Hokage tower, "Alright follow me inside and don't touch anything."

"How old do you think I am?" Yukirei asked as he followed Shikamaru up the Hokage tower to the main office.

Shikamaru knocked on the door, "Kakashi I brought him."

They could hear some shuffling, there was cough. "Send him in."

Yukirei entered the modest looking Hokage tower with a simple desk, two book shelves, two benches, and two chairs before the desk. "Take a seat Prince Kazahana, my name is Kakashi Hatake the Sixth and acting Hokage for now."

"Please just call me Yukirei, Lord Hokage." Yukirei said as he took a seat, Shikamaru stood behind Kakashi off to the side. ". . ."

"You know I was among the four leaf ninja who assisted in bringing your mother back into power, I was the leader and teacher for Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno."

"I didn't- wow." Yukirei stood up and bowed deeply, "Thank you for assisting my mother and keeping her safe. Without your help I don't think I would be here today," Kakashi nodded and smiled.

"You're very welcome, I always admired your mother for her work bringing a kingdom back to its feet while it went through such a dramatic change. Along with acting on the side, plus a child, she's worked harder than anyone I can think of."

"I appreciate you saying that," Yukirei said with a smile leaning back in chair.

"I also truly loved her work in the Icha Icha Paradise movie, its a shame she did not star in Icha Icha Violence." Kakashi said with his eye indicating a gleeful smile. Yukirei's smile faltered as Kakashi continued, "Tell me does she have plan to star in the third movie Icha Icha Tactics? The second star actress playing her character was a real cold fish, but your mother she was amazing."

"She's a little older now, I don't think she'd be up for a second rated R movie . . . " Yukirei said scratching his cheek with an incredibly strained smile.

"I mean her part of Yui was incredible, especially the scene when her and Ryoma were finally together towards the end-"

Yukirei's strained smile was now just him gritting his teeth now, Shikamaru coughed once loudly to catch Kakashi's attention. There was an extremely tight tension in the room now, Kakashi watched Yukirei carefully. "I especially loved the way her body looked when-"

Yukirei shifted in his chair suddenly, the shadows leapt from the ground ready to restrain him. Yukirei just held a calm gaze as he looked around, the shadows melted away. "Interesting . . . " Kakashi said sounding surprised, "I'm impressed you didn't explode or try to kill me."

"Oh, right now I'm beyond anger. It's more of a numbness now," Yukirei said as he looked at his sheathed blade. "I had to deal with people like this for a long time, people who lusted after my mother and I ever since I was very young. I know how to conduct myself, now can we get to why I'm here?"

Kakashi nodded, Yukirei explained everything he knew and even pulled out the scroll from the mysterious woman and read it out them. Kakashi listened carefully while Shikamaru transcribed everything on a scroll for Naruto later. Yukirei let loose a deep sigh once he was done, he was finally calming down.

"I'm sorry, I would love to say the Leaf supports you, but it's not my place to say. Naruto will most likely assist you in anyway he can, but for now try to get some rest. I've already sent a ninja to find the Hokage to make him return quicker," Kakashi said looking much older suddenly as he sympathized with Yukirei.

"Thank you for your time," Yukirei said as he got up and started to walk out. He stopped at the door turning back to them with a sickly sweet smile. "Oh, by the way," he opened the door and started to walk out. "I'm the one who told my mother to not be in the 2nd Icha Icha movie and got the 3rd Icha Icha movie cancelled. I didn't like old perverts ogling her, goodnight~!"

He shut the door as Kakashi froze, Shikamaru slowly back out of the window as the room filled with a murderous intent. "Rrrrrrrrggggghhh . . . "

Yukirei laughed as he heard Kakashi screaming and yelling, _oh man that felt good._

**Author's Notes:**

**I have decided to keep things unchanged, I will not be altering my story to fit the Boruto cannon and we will be sticking to the original Naruto style of the Ninja World. I might make a story unrelated to this one that takes place in that world if my opinion of it changed, but first thing's first: let's finish this story.**

**As always if you did indeed enjoy this and would like to see more of it, then please display your enthusiasm for this story by giving me some feed back in the review sections. Your theories, comments, and constructive criticisms are always appreciated. If you can tell me what you liked versus what you disliked that would be infinitely appreciated.**


	7. The Hidden Leaf Village part three

**Chapter 7 - The Hidden Leaf Village part three**

It was midday when Team Seven landed before their home: The Village Hidden in the Leaves. The three of them were visibly exhausteded as the last bits of Kurama's chakra faded off of them, the very same morning Kiba had found them near the Hidden Rain Village and told them that Kakashi and Shikamaru urgently needed them to rush home.

Naruto immediately used Kurama's power to empower Sasuke and Sakura's physical capabilities, they channeled their inner Guy-sensei and in four long hours they practically flew across the ninja world's landscape toward home. They landed with a giant _BOOM_ and nearly scared Kotetsu and Izumo out of their skins.

"Lord Hokage!" The two ninja stood and bowed, "Welcome back." Naruto panted as he waved to them, Sasuke and Sakura looked exhausted as well as they leaned against each other in order to catch their breathe.

"Anything to report?" Naruto asked as he leaned against their desk stretching, the two ninja looked to each other.

"Other than an actor and his two body guards, nothing to report. They wanted to speak with you about a show in the Hidden Leaf or something," Izumo said with a grin.

Naruto nodded waving his hand to dismiss it, "I need to meet Kakashi. Sasuke, Sakura, good hustle." He turned to the two, "Expect Kiba to return in the evening." Kiba had said he had some business in the Rain Village, but it was obvious that he didn't want to further burden Naruto when it came to sharing his power for four hours.

Naruto vanished in a yellow flash reappearing in his office with Kakashi watching three teenagers in the library, in his left hand he was tightly gripping the book Icha Icha Tactics. "I'm here, what's wrong?"

"Nothing immediate, but you got some decisions to make." Kakashi stood up taking his robes off and put the hat on Naruto's head. "Everything is in the files on the desk, I'm gonna go vent some frustration." He walked out of the office mumbling, " . . . stupid prince . . . icha icha . . . not ogling . . . "

Confused Naruto looked at the files and saw one with Yukirei's photo attached with a paper clip. "What the . . . Yukirei?!" He grabbed the file and sat at his desk opening the file, after a breif skim into the basic transcript he gasped and immediately began reading every word very closely, "This is not good." He looked to the crystal ball and saw the three teens in the library.

~ Yukirei, Hiro, and Sayomi ~

Sayomi looked up from her book and looked to Hiro and Yukirei, "I think we're being watched."

"You think so?" Hiro asked gesturing to all the other library patrons giving them the stink eye, they were making a mess and racket by pulling books by the fives. The library was one big room with a raised second floor-like catwalk around the sides, in the center were some long tables and hanging lights. The three of them had shoved two tables together and were searching every nonfiction book and scroll for anything Spirit World, Red Sea, or Eight Children related.

Yukirei was sitting on the table looking through his scroll and book about specific types of dragons in fiction because apparently no dragons existed within the ninja world. He sighed as he felt a headache approaching, "Find anything?"

Hiro and Sayomi shook their heads, 'no.' Yukirei grimaced: _We've been here since dawn and nothing . . . perhaps the Hokage's archives will have something? _He sighed as he sat down on a chair unsure where to go from here, either Hiro's or Sayomi's stomachs sounded off alerting them to the fact it was lunch time.

"Maybe if we take a break we can search harder when we get back," Sayomi suggested with a light smile.

"Food does sound good," Hiro said with red cheeks and a big smile as he scratched the back of his head.

"You two go on ahead, I want to look into a . . . more personal matter. I'll catch up," Yukirei said as he stacked up scrolls he needed to put back on the shelves. Hiro and Sayomi gave him a concerned looked before they nodded and walked away, "My father was a Leaf Ninja . . . " Yukirei put away the scrolls they had pulled off the rack and thought back to the time Yukirei had harshly questioned his mother about his father's identity:

_ It was two years ago and Yukirei had just returned from the Land of Water with a carriage of presents, he was only fourteen and had to miss out on two weeks of training from Mifune. Needless to say he was upset and the sixteen hour carriage rides had severely stressed him out with boredom._

_ That very same night it was just Yukirei and his mother atop the balcony having their favorite dinner together in the lamp light: Yukirei was eating a onigiri with a salad, Koyuki was merely drinking tea with sushi on the side._

_ "This is nice," Koyuki said looking out to the mountainous landscape as the moon was beigning to rise. "Still not eager to discuss your visit to the Land of Water? I would love to hear about it, please?"_

_ Yukirei finished the food in his mouth and set his onigiri on the plate, "The giantess princess wouldn't stop talking about her visit to the Land of Honey, Dante this and Dante that. 'You're neighbors with Dante, does he speak of me?'"_

_ Koyuki stiffled a laugh, "Sounds like you're jealous?"_

_ "Of that guy? No, never. What's wrong is that she likes him, meanwhile the daimyo wouldn't stop making us do things together. He wants her to like me over that tool because we're more desirable to him, I think? Either way I hated it!" _

_ "It's a burden we must bear Yukirei-"_

_ Yukirei pounded his fist on the table launching his onigiri off the edge of the balcony, "No, we don't! If Father was here than none of this crap would ever happen, if the Land of Snow had a King; we wouldn't have all these suitors banging on our door. Hell next week the Land of Thunder's Daimyo is coming, he's an aggresive chump that can't take no for an answer. Do you like those jerks looking at us like we're pieces of meat and money?"_

_ Koyuki calmly listened to everything and shook her head, "I know it's rough, but Yukirei things can't be perfect-"_

_"I'm not asking for things to be perfect! I'm asking where the hell is my father?!" Yukirei got up and turned walking away. Before he left her he paused rubbing his eye, "What was so important he had to leave us?"_

_ Koyuki turned her head and just looked at her food, "Sweet I love Onigiri!" Koyuki could hear some guards over the balcony._

_ "Enzo don't eat food you find on the floor," Koyuki put her face in her palm and sighed._

_ That night Koyuki came into his room as he laid down writing a 'thank you' note to the Land of Water's daimyo. "Son? Do you have a moment to spare?" Yukirei looked up from his letter template and nodded. Yukirei said nothing as he turned back to his letter copying down everything and filling the blanks, she sat on his bed. "I want to tell you everything I know about your father."_

_ Yukirei's hand froze as he turned to looked at her, "What?"_

_ "I want you to know before I say anything that he lived a very dangerous life style, where one mistake would kill him, or even me. So he never once told me his name or anything about him, he was a mysterious stranger. Maybe that's why I was so attracted to him, but the level of secrecy was so high that he never heard from my lips that I was pregnant, he didn't want to know. He hoped you would exist, but he left me without knowing. I'm sure he found out, some how, but I assure you he loved us and loved for us to stay safe."_

_ Yukirei listened to all this with a confused look on his face, he moved in to sit on the bed also. "That sounds like the story of a man who simply cheats on his wife though. Are you sure he wasn't using you?"_

_ She shook her head, "This was in the midst of a war. Also if I were a mere mistress he would have certainly choosen wrong," She covered her smile. "This was a very dangerous time where people died left and right; but what I did learn from keeping my eyes open was that he was an incredibly powerful ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village. His plans were incredibly intricate, he told me he would win this war in secret and seeing as the Akatsuki lost I'd like to think he was indeed a deciding factor."_

_ "So my father was a ninja, that kept his entire life, even his name a secret from you." Yukirei folding his arm and tapping his finger on his upper arm. "Why didn't he come back? Does that means he died?"_

_ Koyuki grimaced as she pulled Yukirei in close, "I don't know . . . " Yukirei hugged her back, "but what I do know is when I see you; I see him. I know you will be every bit as powerful and kind hearted as he was, but don't think you have to find him. He may very well be gone for good."_

_ "We'll see, but I won't know until I try."_

"God Mifune worked me extremely hard for yelling at Mom," Yukirei's smile melted away as he realised he had stored the scroll from the mysterious woman while he was dazed in memory lane. "Oh no . . . no no no no no!" He looked through the scroll racks for the jade end, but before he could keep searching there was a tap on his shoulder. "What?!"

He turned to see a female ninja in the leaf chunin uniform, she had a pretty face, red eyes, black spikey tomboyish hair. "Well that was certainly polite," She said flatly withdrawing her hand into a lightly closed fist. "Lord Hokage: Naruto Uzumaki urgently requests your presence in the hokage tower."

Yukirei looked to the racks of many scrolls, he grit his teeth and nodded. "Please take me to him immediately," She nodded and led him across the rooftops to the Hokage Tower. But rather than taking him to the door she lead him to a roof ledge right next to the windows, Naruto was standing at his desk waiting for them, the ninja got him through the window.

"Yukirei," Naruto said looking dead serious arms crossed. "Let's save the greetings for later, while I have other ninja finding your friends tell me everything. With as much detail as you can muster, leave absolutely nothing out."

~ Sayomi and Hiro ~

The duo were walking through the marketplace with a bag of hot variety rice balls, they hadn't stop at any restaurant and decided to instead buy food to-go and bring Yukirei some. "I really wish they labeled these," Hiro said making a face as he bit into a crab filled riceball. "I hate shellfish."

"Hey Hiro, I was wondering, did that mysterious woman sound or act strange?" Sayomi asked scraping the red bean paste off her thumb from her rice ball with her teeth.

Hiro had a confused look on his face, "By that you mean?" He lead her out of the market place in order to avoid the on coming food rush.

"I mean, my ears are sharp, very sharp. I sometimes pay attention to the pitches of people's voices when they speak, you have food in your mouth, so it's deepened. With that woman I was picking up on her voice and a very subtle second pitch, like I was listening to more than one person." Sayomi hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings and bumped shoulders with somebody. "Aah, sorry about that."

The guy looked around their age, he had a red hooded short sleeved shirt with a leather black scale armor vest. He had pale skin with a grey long hair, he looked at her with an odd gleam in his eyes. "Don't worry about it," He said with a wolfish grin. "Sayomi Tora."

"A friend of your Sayomi?" Hiro asked looking at the man calmly as he finished his crab riceball.

"I don't know this guy," Sayomi's eyes widened considerably. "But you know my name, who are you? How do you know my name?"

"My name is Sif," He said with that smirk. "My lady told me your name, she wishes to speak with you. Come with us now."

"Us?" Hiro grabbed his naginata on his back, he shuddered as he felt the chill of a blade's edge at his back.

"That isn't a wise idea," said a feminine voice behind him. Hiro rolled away dropping the rice balls, Sayomi's arm was then grabbed by Sif as he pulled her close.

"No, let go of me!" She yelled as she activated her wrist launcher and fired a needle into Sif's foot. He yelped and let her go, she spun and jumped kicking herself away next to Hiro. "Hiro, this is bad."

"Yeah," He said as he held his naginata at the ready. Sayomi heard the sound of flapping cloth in the air above them.

"Hiro move!" Sayomi yelled as she jumped away, Hiro moved in the opposite direction a third person landed in between them slamming the head of his spear into the ground where Hiro had used to be.

He was fully armored with a rice picker hat and face mask covering everything except his yellow slitted eyes and a red ponytail in the back, he pulled his spear out of the ground. Well it was certainly a polearm of some kind, the blade was a wide double edge sword blade with a long shaft. He said nothing as he stoof inbetween Sif and the woman.

"Who are you guys?"

"That's Hakata," Sif said looking to the fully armored spearman. "This is Rancia," the girl wore a tight black body suit with yellow similar scale armor as Sif, she had a dagger in her left hand and a stinger like claw attached to a gauntlet on her right hand. "And watching us is Hou Yi," He said jerking his thumb up at the village's highwall.

Sayomi heard a cracking noise, "Hiro move!" Hiro and Sayomi backed further away as a great javelin like arrow impaled the ground sending a cloud of dust up.

"Just come with us Sayomi, it's two against four. Do you really think you stand a chance?" Sif asked holding up his hands in a shrugging motion.

"If you don't comply we'll be forced to kill your friend," Rancia said sharpening the stinger weapon with the back of her dagger.

"Sayomi, we need to run." Hiro said taking a step back, Sayomi nodded and popped out the devices on her wrists; resealing them and getting two new ones in two swift sweeping motions. She held her hands back as the devices spewed a cloud of white and black smoke, Hiro and her took off

The three took chase and with the five of them running down a public street it didn't take long for ANBU to hit the scene. As Sayomi and Hiro turned a corner nearly eight ANBU ninja emerged from the shadows jumping in to ambush the three.

"Fenli!" Sif yelled out snapping his fingers: an orb of dark green energy engulfed the eight ninja making them slow down considerably, like they were falling through syrup.

"You won't escape!" Rancia said as she took off faster running on the wall of one of the buildings, she ran up next to them and kicked off spinning into a roundhouse kick. Sayomi ducked, but Hiro grabbed her leg and spun with her. "Whoa-oa-oa-oa, let me go!" She yelled as Hiro threw her over the fence somewhere.

They turned to see it was just Sif, Hakata nowhere to be seen, and Sayomi heard the crack of another "arrow" being loosed. "Behind that building Hiro," Sayomi said diving to the side as the ground behind her exploded with another arrow landing.

Hiro didn't move out of the way in time and the explosion flung him forward right into Hakata's swinging of his spear. The flat of the blade nailed him right in the chest and he landed hard on his back. His head making a _THUNK_ noise as he landed, Sayomi got up quickly as Sif closed in. Taking a martial arts stance he lunged at her chest, she dodged to the side and threw the empty smoke devices at his face.

She somersaulted away quickly putting in something new, she fired off two flash bombs, but Sif pulled his red hood down and bent over. Sayomi took the chance and swung a kick at his covered face, he instead grabbed her foot and used her momentum to throw her into a wooden fence.

Sif panted as he walked up to her, "You really know how to run away, but that isn't surprising. You ran from your family after all," He said surprising Sayomi. She licked a cut on her lip, "Come with me."

"I don't think so, ask your lady to find me herself." She spat to the side, Sif shook his head and went for another strike. It hit and pain exploded in Sayomi's shoulder as she lost control of her left arm.

"This would have been much easier if you just listened." He went in for a second strike, but Hataka was knocked into him at high speeds, Hiro quickly ran over and got in front of her to defend her.

"SHANNARO! What is the meaning of this?!"

"You two are under arrest," a woman with pink hair, green eyes, and a diamond on her forehead was cracking her knuckles. Next to her was an ANBU man with dark hair and a mask that looked like a hawk.

Hakata and Sif got up, Sif yelled "Fenli!" The two of them put their hands together and made a bigger sphere, enough to engulf the Hiro, Sayomi, and their two saviors. "Next time Sayomi Tora, I'll be sure to let my lady know what you said." The two ran away while the adults tried to move through the molasse like energy.

When the energy shrunk out of existence, the ANBU man vanished searching for them. The woman walked up to them, "You two are friends of Yukirei right?" Hiro nodded as Sayomi slowly got up using her good arm and the cracked fence, but she winced in pain. "Don't move, I'll have you two healed up and then we need to meet him in the Hokage Tower."

The woman's hand glowed a bright green and white with chakra as she held them over her back and injured shoulder, Sayomi slowly began to felt better, but she couldn't move her arm still. _I hope this is temporary . . ._

While the woman healed up Hiro the man reappeared and shook his head, "They got away. I don't know how, but they vanished." He looked to the two injured teens, "You two should have been strong enough to take them on."

"We should have been," Hiro agreed. "But we ran because there were four of them."

"Four, yet I only saw two." He shook his head, "That is no excuse for how badly you got beaten when it was just two against two." Hiro stayed silent as Sayomi looked away in shame. He looked to the pink haired woman, "Naruto's plan is a bust. They are not gonna survive the chunin exams."

Sayomi didn't say anything, she was focusing on what Sif said. _You ran from your family after all._ What was that supposed to mean? Sayomi didn't remember a single thing about her family. "What's going on?" She asked anyone, but no one had an answer for her.

**NEXT: The Chunin Exams part one**

**Please remember to voice any and all feedback, it pays to know what you like and what you disliked so that I may improve upon my story.**


	8. The Chunin Exams part one

**Chapter 8 - The Chunin Exams part one**

Over the past three weeks the Hidden Leaf Village had been flooding with foreign ninja, much like our heroes from the Land of Snow; all over the village were foreign ninja not just from the five great ninja villages, but smaller villages like the Rain, Grass, and Waterfall as well.

Almost all of the training grounds were taken over by foreign ninja teams in order to adjust to the strange chakra interference, tensions were high, and many colorful characters were causing trouble by picking fights prematurely. Many of the Leaf's chuunin and jonin were on standby to deal with the in fighting.

It didn't bother the three very much since they had the lake next to Dante's vacation home, after a lot of training the Chunin Exams were finally upon them. Hiro was dressed in a brown tight body suit with dark green detailing and trim to match Sayomi, Yukirei was the same but with a dark blue suit with white detailing and trim.

It had taken a lot of effort, sweat, and blood. But Yukirei and Hiro were now recognized Snow Ninja participating in the Chunin Exams; Yukirei wore the Land of Snow head protector with pride in combination with a face mask mimicking Kakashi Hatake's look in order to keep from being recognized. Hiro simply had his head protector be part of his brown leather belt in homage to Leaf Ninja who had vouched for his entrance.

They were participating in the chunin exams in order to prove themselves to the Hokage:

_The three of them stood before the young handsome blonde Hokage who held his hands together as he watched the three of them. "If you three want to be in the loop about what's going on, then you need to prove you can at least fight on a chunin level. All three of you, a new threat is coming, and if I need to simply put you all in a well defended compound I will."_

_". . ." Yukirei had been silent ever since he heard what happened to Hiro and Sayomi, no doubt he thought he should have been there with them to help. Hiro didn't hold anything against him, but that wouldn't stop him from holding anything against himself._

_Finally Yukirei sighed, "I think I know what you're getting at, but I'm not certain. So let me guess: you want us to participate in the Chunin Exams to prove we can fight on the chunin level."_

_"Oh!" Sayomi clapped her hands together squirming in her chair, "I accept! I will definitely ace this exam."_

_"Eh. It's not that kind of exam,"Sakura said with an anxious smile._

_"It also has a requirement that you must enter as a small team of three. You may have the numbers, but only one of you three is actually a ninja." Sasuke said looking at the two boys arms folded, still dissatisfied with their poor performance._

_"I like your enthusiasm Sayomi," Naruto said with a smile as he stood up and held a hand out to Sakura. She handed him a scroll, "This is the basic curriculum of our ninja academy, if Yukirei and Hiro can pass the final exam and qualify to be Leaf Genin before the chunin exams start I will make you Land of Snow head protectors and officially permit your entrance to the exams."_

_Hiro watched all of this while leaning on the wall to the side, he said nothing, it wasn't his place to speak out, but he had a bad feeling about this exam. Just something in his gut told him something bad would happen and they'd be safer away from the Leaf, but still . . . danger was where they would mostly like want to be._

"I'm sure you three got this," Mirai said walking the three to escort them to the academy, this was where the first part of the exam would take place. She was on an exclusive mission from the Hokage himself.

Her mission statement: While Yukirei was within the walls of the Hidden Leaf Village she was to guard his life, in addition she willingly helped Yukirei learn the basic academy techniques: the clone, substitution, and transformation techniques.

As for Hiro he couldn't feel his chakra let alone channel it, so with a little from Mirai, the female leaf ninja introduced Hiro to Might Guy and Rock Lee. They were an odd pair, but after hearing of his plight they could not help but sympathize. They trained his body till he could perform on par with the average ninja and demanded that he be permitted entrance, Naruto reluctantly agreed. It was the worst three weeks of Hiro's life, but he could leap among the trees with the best of them.

If Hiro were honest, he didn't like the feeling the Hokage gave off. Naruto was really controlling even having a ninja constantly supervise them, Mirai was kind and all. Her intentions were pure Hiro was certain, but there was something off putting about her always staring at the Prince. What was she looking for in him?

"I'd be surprised if we failed this to be honest, I mean we're older than most all the participants." Sayomi said as she skipped along with a big smile. In time they made it to the academy and Mirai stopped at the door, "Thanks Mirai you've been an amazing help!"

"No problem, it was fun, but my mission isn't over yet. You're all still here after all," She winked to them. But her smile dropped as she leaned in whispering, "I have to warn you. The Chunin Exams aren't the same exams the Hokage took twenty years ago. Thanks to your country, the Land of Snow and its technology. The chunin exams are filmed and broadcasted internationally. It's great because it stops foul play a lot, but it's also gotten more . . . exciting? Dangerous? I honestly don't know how to describe it."

"I know," Yukirei said cringing. "I watched an exam once and my mother had me sent to bed, it was apparently too violent for an eleven year old. Ever since I had to watch them in secret," He said with a devious smile.

"Don't worry about us, I'm sure we'll be fine," Hiro said with a confident grin. He looked to his two partners. Friends? Comrades? He wasn't entirely sure what they were just yet. "Ready to go?"

Yukirei stared ahead at the door, he looked like he was building his resolve. He took a deep breath, "Let's do this." He opened the door and strode in with Mirai waving to them. Sayomi waved back and Hiro nodded to her mustering his bravest smile

"Hurry, you don't wanna be late!"

They walked through the halls with an awkward silence falling between them, Hiro had never been to a school before. Seemed a little too cramped to him, he was home schooled after all. He learned reading and writing from his mother, math math his grandfather on their farm, and learned other useful skills under his father when he joined the Snow's military.

They climbed up the stairs towards the second floor where they found a crowd of ninja gathered on the stairs. "What's going on?" Sayomi asked a rain ninja wearing a rebreather, rice picker hat, and a long black rain coat.

"There is a challenge stopping us from moving onto the second floor," He said moving to side slightly so they could see. The entire floor was removed with a simple spun steel wire spanning the entire hallway. A few ninja had set up a ninja wire railing and were crossing very slowly, "If you move too suddenly you can pull the wire out and people have fallen.

"We're gonna be late," Yukirei said biting his lip hard. Then he blinked a couple of times, "Wait what?"

He turned to Hiro and pinched his arm hard, "Ah! What's the big idea?" The entire hallway melted around him until he saw just a normal hallway crowded with ninjas standing around in a daze. A few were laying on the ground twitching like they were trying to stop themselves from falling. "I see it," the two of them looked at Sayomi and got ready to pinch her.

"Whoa, whoa, back off. I got the message," She said jumping back a little putting her hands in a chopping motion like she was ready to kung fu them into little pieces. She held her hands together and formed a seal, "Release." After a small pause she smirked, "A genjutsu . . . I like it."

"Let's keep moving and avoid touching them; the less ninja who make it to the 1st test the easier time we'll have." Yukirei said as the three of them rushed up to the fourth floor and found themselves before some adult ninja who randomly placed them in a massive classroom far away from each other.

The auditorium was the size of three or four classrooms merged together with long desks strung along the rows. It was in a barracks like fashion, sitting down in a chair facing one older man. It made Hiro feel like he was just a schmuck amongst other schmucks. Not a prodigy castle guard, just a normal boy amongst other normal boys and girls: it felt terrible.

Hiro was in the back on the far right, Yukirei in the middle on the left, and Sayomi was front and center. "This will be a written examination," said a familiar face.

It was the pineapple head Shikamaru, "All around you are cameras and jonin level sensory ninja whom will be watching for any cheating. If you are caught you and your entire team will be disqualified, any questions?"

Hiro hardly heard anything, when a few ninja raised their hands he was almost tempted to do the same. Thank goodness he didn't though because Shikamaru snapped his fingers and the younger ninja were immediately taken outside, _Oh god what have we walked into?_

"You only need to answer one question correctly in order to pass. Since there are no questions you may all begin!" The whole auditor was deadly silent as the jounin stood up and began to walk around with stacks of papers.

The jonin ninja handed them all three papers clipped together, ten questions which were all about a paragraph or two in length. Hiro couldn't believe what he was seeing; _Ah okay, the first one. Two ninja at opposite angles throw a kunai and shuriken at each other, use the weight of both ninja tools to decided which would overpower the other and hit their mark?_ _Is this math or english? What the heck is a kunai?_ Hiro could see other ninja pulling out ninja weapons and weighing them before answering, Hiro risked a glance at his friends.

Yukirei was skimming through the papers and answering the easier ones first, when he wrote down an answer he wrote for a long time. Sayomi in the front was . . . wait, what was she doing?

She was idly toying a senbon needle on her desk, spinning it between her fingers while she wrote in perfect match with the brainiac behind her. It took Hiro a while to realize: _she's using her ears, so she's cheating. But why? She's not following the OHHHHH!_ They were supposed to cheat!

Yukirei was flat out smart enough to answer a few, he only needed one question to be right, so he was guaranteed to pass. Sayomi was cheating on every question, one was bound to be right. Hiro however, he didn't have the smarts to do this test legitimately, nor the skills to cheat without getting caught.

Hiro looked to the side at a sand ninja and saw a jonin smirk looking him dead in the eyes. As if saying: _Go on, try it. _Hiro swallowed hard and began to sweat; after a few minutes of being queasy and nervous he grit his teeth. _Dammit, I won't let a stupid piece of paper stop me. I'll do my best and if I fail . . . let's not think about that._

He picked up his paper and began skipping the math questions: _In which battle did the second hokage Tobirama Senju die?_ After a brief moment of thought Hiro got it: _His last battle._ Alright one down.

Where was the Armistice Treaty signed? _Bottom of the page. _The Puppet Techniques were created using? _Wood._ What stifled the high death rates in the ninja world during the third great ninja war? _Doctors._ Find X, Hiro simply put an arrow down and wrote: _Here._

Before Hiro knew it he had answered eight of the ten questions and was almost ready to throw up from nerves. A full hour passed and Shikamaru called for all the papers to be turned in, only a third of the original test takers remained. Hiro heard people being taken out, but had focused on the test to really notice. Plus he didn't want to look away from his paper any more than he already had.

Shikamaru channeled his technique and held them all up with nearly sixty small tendrils of shadow. He held up his answer key as he quickly scanned through them all, he called out a few ninja for not getting any answers right or leaving it blank.

Then he got to what must have been Hiro's paper, it was obvious because he looked through the curtain of papers right at Hiro. The older ninja gave him an "are you serious" look, Hiro just smiled nervously.

He sighed and with a lighter burned away all the papers. "This concludes the first test of the chunin exams, the second part will take place in Training Grounds 198. Here to escort you is my associate Orochimaru," He said holding out a hand.

As he said that a massive light brown viper with silver slitted eyes broke through the wall. It blinked looking at them all like it wanted to devour them all. A few ninja got up drawing their weapons for self defence, Yukirei and Sayomi hadn't however. Hiro couldn't even think about his weapon as the color drained from his face. _Oh god no nononononono! Not snakes, why did it have to be snakes?!_

It opened its maw and walking out was a pale man with long dark hair, yellow eyes, and wore a simple robe. "So these are my new play things," The man said with a devious smirk. "Come with me if you want to experience a hell the likes of which you've never felt before!" He said ominously while opening his arms like he wanted a hug.

Shikamaru coughed to get everyone's attention: "As a fair warning this is a brand new untested experimental training ground, you all will be the first to test its effectiveness. Some of you will die, but if you have cold feet you may leave now."

A few of the younger ninja immediately backed out, Hiro wanted nothing more than to join them, but he couldn't let Yukirei and Sayomi down now. Especially after all this, only a quarter of the ninja in the room remained.

Yukirei stood up, Sayomi looked back at him with a nervous smile, but confidently nodded. Yukirei looked back at Hiro who tried to nod back. But he was petrified, Yukirei ran up the stairs to him. "Hiro are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just I hate snakes. They're demons, they can move, but they don't got legs." He said shaking a little, "Just give me a second. I'll meet you inside the monster," Yukirei grimaced as Sayomi ran up to them.

"Is he okay?" The two of them were waiting on him while the ninja filed into the snake.

Hiro swallowed hard and with stiff legs walked down the stairs with them. "Come on Hiro, let's go." Sayom said with a brave smile as the two of them put their hands on Hiro's shoulders and guided him to the dark moist cave, Hiro made a low squealing noise as they entered the mouth. Shikamaru gave them a thumbs up as they were the last ones who entered the maw of the beast.

"All aboard!" Orochimaru laughed manically as the snake's jaws snapped shut.

"NO WAIT I WANNA GET OUT!" Hiro shrieked as they started moving very quickly, all the ninja were being tossed around like a big racially diverse salad.

Hiro grabbed what he assumed what was Yukirei and Sayomi, he couldn't tell, but he just needed something to stabilize himself. Something grabbed him back tightly, it was a short ten minutes, but it felt like an hour to Hiro as the world went from moist and black to steamy and white.

The entire snake poofed into smoke leaving everyone except Orochimaru on the floor, Hiro was kneeling at the pale man's feet gripping his robe with white knuckles. "What's wrong boy? Afraid of snakes?" He said with a great crazed grin.

Hiro backed off quickly and ran to Yukirei and Sayomi, they were wet from their ride, but looked fine and unshaken. Hiro collapsed om the ground next to them, heart racing, _God I must look like a complete coward!_

Yukirei and Sayomi didn't give him grief, instead they gave him small words of encouragement and pat his back trying to reassure him that he no longer had to deal with snakes.

Hiro calmed down and realised they were now on a massive cliff overlooking a strange looking valley; it looked like much of circles within circles. Boundary lines with different environments in between each boundary, there was a second group of ninja a ways away. They must have been from another first test. Their Orochimaru pointed to their group and poofed into smoke. They made their way over and Hiro did some math:_ about twenty four ninjas in each group, forty eight ninja total so . . . sixteen teams._

"Welcome one and all to the Dark Wood Grain Rings!" Orochimaru said out to the huge group of ninja, "Let me explain how this second test works: there are three ring shaped barriers and three areas.

The first area is the dark woods populated by the worst beasts ever summoned by ninja, it is your goal to cross the rings into the next area.

The second area is the volatile woods where weather and climate conditions will rapidly change to impede you. After you cross that next ring you will be safe and wait within the center castle for further instruction."

"Doesn't sound too hard," Sayomi said with a guarded smile, "Or is there more too it?"

Orochimaru nodded, "There is one catch. You must cross the rings with your entire team simultaneously or else you'll be disqualified. You will all start in the outer ring at random locations, don't even think of lone wolfing it because your team will be forced to wear matching medallions." He said holding up a purple crystal pendant shaped like a coiled serpent.

"So we need to find our teammates and survive before we can enter the next area," A mist ninja said with a long nodachi on his back.

"Correct, you'll be racing against the monsters, environment, your teammates, and the clock because once half of the ninja cross that ring it will be permanently locked, this goes for the other ring as well.

Meaning of the forty eight ninja here, only sixteen can enter the central safe zone," Everyone suddenly felt under much more pressure as Orochimaru chuckled to himself, "I love that look: so helpless and terrified. Let me ease your mind a tiny bit: there is a safety net, let's say your medallion breaks."

He crushed it in his hand, a massive viper erupted from the ground swallowing him whole. It exploded into smoke, Orochimaru landed on the ground. "Those who fail, are disqualified, or have their medallion break will be brought back here safely. You may also crush the medallions yourself in order to forfeit."

Yukirei stepped forward and spoke up, "How long is this test expected to last?"

Orochimaru shrugged, "it could be days. Either way this event will be televised. My serpents will be filming you all and referees will monitoring it all. Now come collect your medallions and strategize with your team," Everyone grouped up and began to line up. Hiro, Yukirei, and Sayomi were pretty close to him and got their matching medallions pretty early.

"Alright do we got a plan?" Hiro asked desperately, he wanted to know anything that could help, Sayomi shook her head.

"Other than try to find each other? Not much," She said sighing jumping in place in order to ease her nerves. "Yukirei?"

"Oh I got us something," Yukirei said with a smirk as he took out a three scrolls. "Mirai and I packed these emergency scrolls for any occasion and there is a little trinket in here that will single handedly win us this test."

Yukirei wrote down their plan on three pieces of paper and rolled them up in the scrolls before handed one to Hiro and Sayomi each, "Everything you need to know is here. Say nothing incase of prying ears," Hiro and Sayomi nodded as they put their scrolls away.

Orochimaru clapped his hands. "Alright everybody I want you to use the number and letter engraved on the back of your medallion to find your proper starting point. Hiro looked at his medallion: 3-K. He found a stone slab and stood on top of it, "Anyone afraid of heights? Nobody! PERFECT!" He yelled as he made a sign, "Release!"

"Heights? What's that supposed to mean?" Hiro asked an explosion under the slab sent him flying towards the valley below, everybody was launched either high or low but everyone was being sent free falling towards the outermost forest. "AHHHHH I ALSO HATE HEIGHTS!"

**Author's Note(s): Hello Loyal Readers! I'd like to thank you for reading and keeping up with the story this far. I would also like to apologize for taking so long to make, edit, and upload this chapter. I have been on vacation with my family in Hawaii, I should be back home soon though.**

** Please remember that any feedback helps keep this story alive and well, also motivating me to write more. Please do leave a review leaving your thoughts on the story or the chapter in general. Thank you.**


	9. The Chunin Exams part two

**Chapter 9 - The Chunin Exams part two**

Within the Hokage tower Team Seven were building their case file to present to the other kage for when they finally arrived. They compiled evidence including the detailed transcript of Yukirei's story. While they put everything together on Naruto's desk they had a television near by playing the live broadcasted chunin exams.

On screen they could see all the contestants being launched, it even zoomed in on the screaming and flailing Hiro. "Do you think this year's participants are ready Yamato?" Sai asked, the two of them were on screen as this year's shout casters.

"Not after what I just saw," Yamato said watching the live feed of Hiro's flight.

"They're gonna die," Sasuke said sitting back and folding his arms. "So what are we gonna tell the other Kage when they arrive?"

"I just need to get the entire case file copied for all of them, with Kurotsuchi's word it shouldn't be too hard convincing them." Sakura said watching the screen as it showed various ninja's landing strategies. "Whoa!"

Naruto and Sasuke turned their attention as the camera showed a rain ninja using his umbrella in order to fire kunai, shuriken, and senbon alike at Yukirei as they fell.

"What's this? The Rain Ninja Akira Toshiba is trying to get in some early damage on the masked snow ninja...ahh, let's see here." Yamato looked through the registered list of active ninja, "His name is Sosetsu it looks like, what will he do vulnerable in the air like this?"

"Sosetsu draws his katana and starts to deflect all that he can, surely the shuriken and kunai are easy to bat away, but he's certainly missing those senbon needles." Sai said as he watch the two free falling on screen the two of them began their descent into the dark woods.

Yukirei sheathed his katana and slowly purple chakra trailed off his body in a wispy trail, he started to flip and spin around the trees gradually losing momentum. Finally he came up to a large tree and landed against the tree trunk, he pushed off it flipping onto one massive limb.

"Looks like all those fancy maneuvers made Sosetsu dizzy, let's check on Akira." Yamato said as the camera feed show the rain ninja using his umbrella to guide his descent he was quickly approaching on Yukirei.

"Looks like we're about to get our first fight of the chunin exams people," Akira flew in using his umbrella like a glider. He closed it and quickly began falling, he landed with a roll getting to his feet quickly.

The two stared each other down, Yukirei drew his katana yanking out a few of the senbon needles. He immediately charged Akira after giving him a little time to recompose, the rain ninja swung his umbrella sending a wave of needles at him.

Yukirei's body still gave off that purple chakra trail as he spun in place and vaulted backwards over Akira. Yukirei grabbed him by the collar and with the pommel of his katana began beating him over the head, "Such savagery. He's clearly upset with those early attacks," Yamato said watching Akira get beat on.

"I too would be upset if I were attacked while vulnerable," Sai mused as Yukirei threw Akira to the ground. He sheathed his blade ready for a sweeping strike, Akira got up and was immediately knocked off the branch into a free fall with a deep gash in over his chest.

It wasn't over yet, Yukirei jumped down on top of him cutting the umbrella in half, "What's this, does Sosetsu plan on finishing him off now!?" Yukirei sheathed his blade and used the sheath to smash the medallion on the rain ninja. Yukirei crouched and leapt skyward towards the tree branch he used to be on. He stabbed his blade into the wood to give himself a handle to grip, Akira was sent plumetting as one of Orochimaru's vipers came out of the ground and its jaws snapped closed around Akira failing him.

"There you have the exciting conclusion to the first fight, we got a few more in the south side with Ireia Kinmo and Juri Fugo!"

Naruto sighed sitting back in his chair, "Yukirei is pretty good. About chunin I'd say," Sasuke and Sakura also seemed to lose interest in the two ninja girls getting in a kunai throwing fight.

"I'm glad I kept Sarada out of this, I don't trust anything Orochimaru touched." Sasuke said, Naruto would have to agree to that. "As for Yukirei, he's alright, he could definitely have done more to not get hit in the air like that."

"I wonder how Hiro and Sayomi are doing," Sakura pondered. They weren't featured so it didn't look like anything significant was happening.

"As soon as this is all over we'll hopefully have more answers, like it or not the first month is about to end. We got five more to go and we still don't have any information on the eight children, spirit world, or scarlet sea for that matter." Naruto sighed, "Still no sign of Karin either . . . "

Over time it was revealed that she was an Uzumaki like Naruto, he tried to be more involved with her since they were family, but she had left for the Hidden Mist preferring to stay close to her friends Suigetsu and Jugo. Now she was missing and they needed her to figure out where the interference was coming from.

"Lord Hokage!" Mirai burst into the office making them all jump.

"I nearly had a heart attack, don't do that, I'm too young for those!" Naruto asked breathing heavily with a hand on his chest, "What's wrong Mirai?"

"Orochimaru reports that two intruders are within' Training Grounds 198. Two women and four men," She said giving him two polaroid snapshots. One photo showed a young man hooded man travelling through the dark woods alone with a longbow and quiver of arrows, the other showed a young woman jumping through the woods with a lion and wolf keeping up with her.

"Are these the two hunting Sayomi?" Naruto asked handing the photos to Sasuke and Sakura.

"No they aren't but something tells me they aren't here with innocent intentions." Sasuke said standing up, "Shall I intervene?"

"No, I had a plan in case something like this were to happen." He made the signs for a summoning technique and on his desk summoned a small pink and white toad, "Hello Gamakiri."

"Hi Big Boss, where's Small Boss?" The small female toad asked.

"He's home doing some work," Naruto said with a light smile. "I need you to tell Gamakichi to find this woman and capture her," He said handing the small toad the photo of the woman.

"You got it big boss man!" The toad leapt up and landed in the floor in a poof of smoke.

"What about this boy?" Sakura held up the other picture, "I feel like I've seen him before."

"Hm," Naruto held up the image. "You're right, he may be somebody important. Sasuke, use Aoda to bring him in for questioning." Sasuke nodded and got up vanishing in a gust of leaves.

~ Sayomi Tora ~

Her landing was easy, she flew off to the side and was easily able to swing her weight around till she was able to land safely, "Alright now to find Hiro." She opened the emergency scroll real fast, there was a letter detailing the contents. Food, water, a first aid kit, compass, and a watch.

_We are going to use these watches to win, spend a whole day trying to find one another. If that fails then we will cross the boundary at midnight at 12 sharp, we just need to do it at the same time, not together. Then tomorrow at noon we will do the same if we cannot find one another, but do try to find each other first._

Sayomi noticed the seal was a blood seal and with a quick cut she unsealed the extra utilities, she put her watch on. "It's three forty-two, I got time. Alright sit tight Hiro," She was able to hear his screaming the entire time she was flying. She knew which direction he was in, with a goal in mind she immediately took off north thanks to the compass.

She jumped over and around the trees and noticed that snakes were watching her, mouths open, and inside their throats was a camera lense. _So that's how we're being filmed . . . _She kept that in mind as she wove around the branches.

After a long while she checked the time; _five twelve, have I really been moving for an hour and a half?_ She had not yet met a single ninja or monster other than the various snakes.

Which was disappointing, she was itching for some action now. She bound around the woods when things got absurdly quiet. ". . ." She kept her ears out, nothing, her ears were incredibly sensitive. Why wasn't she hearing anything? An overwhelming sense of danger overcame her.

She was being stalked by something or someone better than her, she quickly got low to the ground crouching while looking around. Nothing, above her? Again nothing. But still she knew for a face she wasn't alone.

_bzzz bzz bzzzz _Sayomi turned and saw a lone hornet flying near by, it went behind a tree and a flash of green light came from behind the tree. Rancia walked out onto a branch, "You're pretty good to notice me Sayomi."

"Rancia, I doubt you're here to be a chunin." She said folding her arms, "Neat trick you got there."

"Your doubts are correct I'm afraid, as for my 'trick,' let's just say it comes naturally." She said as she put on her stinger and rested a hand on her dagger, "Are you willing to comply now that you're alone?"

"You're alone," Sayomi said as she put on her wrist launchers.

"Not as alone as you'd think," She pointed up as a Lion and Wolf leapt down from above her. She dodged backwards off of the branch and saw him for the first time, a big man with dark skin wearing roughed up leather armor. He sat perched on a branch below her with a bow larger than himself and those javelin sized arrows lying on the side of a tree trunk next to him. He had an arrow drawn back ready for her, with a grunt he fired at her.

The arrow split into four pieces revealing a net in the center. It caught her and pinned her to the side of a tree trunk, "I got her." He said in a absurdly deep voice that rang in Sayomi's ears.

"No use running now Sayomi." Sif called from the branch she was just on, Hakata was next to him.

"Why are you doing this?!" Sayomi demanded as she drew a kunai and began to cut through the net. But it was made of some tough stuff, it wasn't cutting. "I've done nothing wrong and I don't even know you guys!"

"Oh, but I know you." A woman dropped in between Sif and Hataka, she wore a luxurious outfit of white and red ornate robes. Draped over her shoulders were a mess of bright red feathers, her hair was a messy untamed scarlet red with jade green eyes. "Little Sister."

~ Yukirei Kazahana ~

"That makes five," Yukirei sighed he defeated Yuri Kotonoha, a leaf genin. His chakra reserves were still find despite all the techniques he used in rapid succession, that was the primary advantage of his bloodline limit. He could break up his chakra into six different types. This meant he could only use six techniques total, but they cost about a sixth of normal techniques.

He defeated the rain ninja and teamed up with Yuri in order to defeat a reunited team, from the Hidden Cloud that spent their time hunting down other ninja to disqualify them.

Yukirei and Yuri fought each other after that, Yukirei came out on top, and that's all she wrote. Yukirei had no clue where to start looking, he had gotten turned around many times already. He didn't have the time either since he wasn't gonna unseal his scroll till night time.

He didn't know how to reseal things after all, but this seemed a little too easy. Any ninja he came across he could make short work off, "Maybe I can fight on the level of chunin, maybe higher." If that was true then he felt pretty bad participating with people weaker than him . . .

He sheathed his blade and decided to circle around the barrier rather than rushing straight there, his goal was to find his allies . . . what were they? He cared for them, but he didn't really know them either . . .

_fwish! _Yukirei heard it a half second too late, a sharp intense pain exploded in his left shoulder followed by his left arm going completely stiff locking up. Yukirei landed on another wide branch rolling as he landed, his emergency scroll spinning in front of him.

He turned to look, an arrow was lodged in his shoulder. He felt a warm liquid oozing from the wound, his own blood. _tweeen..._ He got up and ran rolling to avoid another arrow soaring over where he used to be. He got behind the trunk of the tree by getting on another branch, he tried to channel his chakra but the pain was making it hard to focus.

He unrolled the scroll and slapped it against his wound, the supplies tumbled around him. He grabbed the watch and stuffed it in his suit, then he popped open the first aid kit and crunched the bitter pain killers.

He tried to steady his breathing as very slowly the pain ebbed away, he reached behind him and gripped the shaft of the arrow. He gave it a test pull, it wasn't curved or barbed thank goodness, he pulled and it started to give way.

With one last hard pull and a small explosion of his blood coated a the trunk behind him. _Oh that's a lot of blood,_ Yukirei wasn't safe, he could just heal himself like this. He took a chance to peek around and saw a hooded young man with a bow over his shoulder climbing up the tree using a rope arrow. _There he, doesn't look like a ninja . . . Let's see if I can't put these new ninja skills to use._

He leapt out in mid air making two basic illusion clones, the man drew an arrow and shot directly at the real Yukirei. Yukirei closed hsi eyes and thought of the surrounding woods, instead of another arrow in his chest he opened his eyes and found himself on another tree branch watching the log he swapped with fall to the floor.

That archer was here somewhere, he sent two more clone to explore and draw his fire. Yukirei himself climbed up into the leaves and watched, the archer walked out onto a wide branch ignoring the Yukirei clones.

_He's either good or well experienced._ Yukirei knew he was losing blood fast, but he had to take out this guy first. Channeling his purple chakra he burst from the leaves with the archer firing at him, the arrow passed right by his head.

Yukirei jumped onto the branch rolling ot his feet, the archer kissed his teeth and drew three arrows firing them. Yukirei's adrenaline must have been pumping hard because he felt like he could see things easier, more slowly. Yukirei swung his sword knocking away two of the arrows and letting the thirst pass under his arm.

Yukirei sheathed his blade and charged with a sweeping strike, the archer rolled away past him and launched arrow after arrow in rapid succession. Again, Yukirei saw them coming and with fast wrist motions he knocked away every arrow fired at him.

He got closer to the archer who grabbed an arrow off his quiver and spun ready to stab Yukirei with it, Yukirei used the back of his katana to knock his hand up. He sheathed his blade and slashed cutting the bow in half. He took a step forward and kicked the archer in the stomach sending him flat on his back.

His hood came up revealing a familiar face with blonde lockes, "Dante?!"

He sat up gritting his teeth, his eyes holding only contempt and rage. "Yukirei . . . what the hell are you wearing?"

"Never mind that," Yukirei said sheathing his blade. "Why are you here?!" Yukirei demanded, shouldn't Dante have been taken just like everybody else? Slowly it dawned on him that Dante didn't go to his party.

"Take a wild guess," He said rolling backward onto his feet. His necklace shattered forming a gold bow, the draw string came after with it being a his own chakra. "I'll give you one before I fire."

"Your sister," Yukirei said knowing exactly why he was here. "You're here looking for answers," this was bad. Yukirei had foolishly sheathed his blade, if he tried to draw it now his would be shot.

"Correct, now I want some answers. Where is she? What happened to your city? And why is there a strange rift unleashing shadow monsters?" That last question he didn't expect.

"I know nothing of a rift, but my home with everybody in it was stolen away by a strange woman. She had powers never seen before, enough to steal an entire city. I came to the Hidden Leaf seeking help, but in order to be taken seriously I need to prove my combat skills."

". . ." The drawstring and chakra arrow faded away, "Is that why you're here dressed like a bondage slave?"

"I didn't design it," Yukirei said with a small grin. "How do you even know what a bondage slave looks like? Did you learn it from your secret stash?"

"I learned it from your mother," Dante said with a cocky smirk. "Icha Icha sound familiar?"

Yukirei grit his teeth and drew his sword instinctually, "I should cut you right now for that."

"Ha-ha! I'd like to see you try, you've lost way too much blood." As he said it Yukirei suddenly realized he was starting to feel really cold, he didn't even realize he'd been losing blood all this time. He sheathed his blade and channeled his bloodline; a green spotlight washed over him, slowly his wounds were closing.

"Stupid arguments aside, you shouldn't be here Dante. Ninjas only."

"Piss on that," Dante said as his bow turned back into a bead on his necklace. "I can stay or go anywhere I want and you're not even a ninja Yukirei. What kind of self-respecting ninja uses a sword? I'll tell you what kind of ninja: a bitch-ninja!"

"I see you're still an idiot."

"I see you're now a bitch-ninja," Dante said folding his arms, "We still got much to talk about."

"I agree, but that has to come another time. Just go to your vacation home, we were borrowing it for a while."

"We?" Dante asked as the wood deteriorated under him and a massive purple serpent shot out of the ground snapping it jaws around him. "Ahh what the hell?!"

". . ." Yukirei watched the serpent sink back into the earth, slugs inch away from the tree, and could only shook his head, "Poor bastard. I better find Hiro and Sayomi before the same thing happens to me," Yukirei tried to make a leap, but couldn't find the strength.

_Damn you Dante, I lost way too much blood because of you._ He went back to where he unsealed his stuff and began eating all the he could to hopefully get back some of his missing inner fluids. He was in no shape to run or jump now. All he could do was simply used to the transformation technique to blend into the environment and get some rest. He'd travel again when the moon came out, he hoped his teammates weren't doing half as bad as he was.

**Author's Notes:**

**It's good to be home, Hawaii was fun, but overrated.**

**Aside from that, I got nothin' . . .**

**:^)**


	10. The Chunin Exams part three

**Chapter 10 - The Chunin Exams part three**

Sayomi must have misheard, this woman did not just call her 'little sister.' She pushed against the net, but the four arrow parts had her pinned to the tree trunk in a bad position. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me right, Sayomi Tora. I am your older sister, Fujin Houou. Rancia free her," the woman said snaping her fingers. Rancia nodded jumping over catching onto one of the four parts of the arrow and with two slashes of her dagger the net fell apart in tatters.

"Come with me," Rancia said holding out her hand. Sayomi's mind was at war with her heart, she wanted to hear this woman out, she wanted to believe her, but she knew that she needed to be cautious of this stranger.

"What happens if I do?" Sayomi asked climbing onto one of the other divided arrow shafts not taking Rancia's hand.

"We'll leave this place, to our homeland, and I will tell you absolutely everything you ever wanted to know. Your mother, your father, and the rest of our siblings. Where you came from," Fujin said extending her hand. "Just return with me."

Sayomi wanted to, god she wanted to go, her heart ached for the answers. However . . .

"I am sorry Fujin. I cannot leave, I got unfinished business here." Sayomi said turning away, "But tell me . . . are we really sister? Do we have the same parents? How many siblings do I have?"

"Yes we are sister of blood relation, we all share a father, but our mothers are not the same. Not for any of us, we have two more sisters, and four brothers." Fujin said as tears welled up in Sayomi's eyes, she was almost shaking now. "I cannot allow you to leave however, time is of the essence, and I require your immediate assistance."

Sayomi shook her head, she swallowed hand not wanting her voice to crack. "Sorry sister. I cannot, I have my own people who need me."

"People more important than your family?"

"People who have been there for me more than my own family," Sayomi letting some pent up bitterness linger in her tone.

Fujin swallowed hard as Sayomi turned to walk away, but found Sif arms spread and legs wide to block her path. "I'm sorry Lady Sayomi, but I need you to come with me. Now," He said looking her dead in the eyes.

"I refuse," She said going to walk past him, but he grabbed her shoulder.

"It wasn't a request," He said in a steely calm down, his grip like iron.

After a short tense stare down Sayomi fired a smoke bomb in Sif's face making him release her as he got into a coughing fit, she took the chance to run. No doubt the lightly armored hornet girl and lion man we on her tail and soon Sif after what she just did. She heard the echoing _crack_ and dove to the side as the branch she was just on exploded into splinters.

She looked around, none of the vipers with cameras were near her? How? Either way nobody knew where she was, she couldn't count on intervention from the hokage, she would have to fight or fly.

"There is no escape Sayomi!" She heard Rancia yelled behind her, she didn't stop running. She could run for a long time, but not forever: she needed Hiro or Yukirei, preferably both! She rolled out of the way from Hataka's sliding thrust and took a high leap, she heard another _crack_ she couldn't avoid this one.

"Sayomi!"

"Get behind me girl!" A deep voice yelled, a massive toad leapt up just in front of her midair and with a massive blade blocked the arrow and it spewed water spraying Rancia and Hataka down.

She landed on a branch rolling and stayed down watching the massive amphibian in disbelief, atop the beast holding onto its clothes was Hiro! He looked pretty beat up, but otherwise he was fine!

He carried his naginata and leapt to her, he landed with a slight run. "Got here just in the nick of time, good thing I hitched a ride on Gamakichi." He said with a grin, "What did I miss?"

"A family reunion," Sayomi said getting up and looking around. Fujin was here now floating with glowing red feathers trailing behind her.

The toad narrowed his eyes on her, "Lady I got orders to bring you in." Gamakichi's cheeks swelled up as he fired his tongue at her, the woman spun away midair and held out her hand as bright red feathers circled around it igniting on fire.

However, rather than attacking she closed her eyes. ". . ." She shook her head, "I cannot hurt any spirits. My friends! I am retreating, bring Sayomi to our temporary home." She said as her feathered, scarf? It glowed brightly engulfing her arms, she flapped her acquired wings and flew off quickly.

"You're not getting away!" The toad yelled jumping after her, soon Rancia and Hataka recovered and Sif arrived. Just like that time before it was two against three, the three watched them brandishing their weapons.

"Just like that time before," Hiro said with a confident smirk. "Let's make up for last time, ready Sayomi?"

Sayomi had caught her breath and changed out her wrist launchers to something more her style, her classic senbon. "Do you think we can take them on three against two."

Hiro didn't look too sure himself, "I guess we're about to find out." Sif, Hataka, and Rancia waited for them too come, just as Hiro and Sayomi took their first steps forward they heard a loud low pitched snarl. Sayomi looked to the side and took a sharp breath that grew into a great big smile.

Running to them and climbing up the side of their tree was a big tiger with golden orange fur and covered in black stripes, its eyes black and yellow. With a snarl she regarded Sayomi. "Hige! It's so good to see you again," Sayomi said happy to see her old friend, she gave the tiger a half embrace scratching her fur.

The tiger gave a deep powerful purr as Hiro backed away nervously, "Friend of yours?"

"Yes, a very old friend." Sayomi stood up bouncing on the balls of her feet, feeling much better. "Now I'm ready. Hige, these guys aim to abduct me for their own personal agendas. Against my will."

The tiger roared in outrage and leapt ahead going for Sif the obvious leader, Hiro and Sayomi weren't about to leave her in a three versus one. They leapt after her, Hiro and Hataka immediately crossed spear and naginata.

Sayomi went for Rancia, making her finger guns to assist her aim; Sayomi fired off Senbon needles with lethal accuracy. The hornet woman flipped around quickly avoiding the needle projectiles before she got in close slashing with her dagger, Sayomi used her arm to stop the attack and fired a needle into her foot taking advantage of the angling.

"Gyah!" She yelled jumping back, Sayomi took advantage of her impaired movements firing off a birage of senbon needles emptying her packs, Rancia used her weapons to deflect most, but Sayomi managed to get her in the legs, chest, and arm.

Rancia fell to one knee as Sayomi unsealed a strange looking device for her feet, she slipped them over her ninja tabi and activated them. These were all prototype boots for her chakra armor, this was the Flame Dancer version 0.9, she had minor experience with them, just enough to know how they work, but she hadn't actually used them in combat yet.

These devices would empower her footwork and power, she took off with a burst of white smoke and spun with a roundhouse kick. Rancia held up an arm to block her, but the kick still sent her spiraling away. Sayomi walked up to her, "Ready to give up?"

Rancia flipped back onto her feet, she blew her hair out of her face. "If I had my true power you wouldn't be acting so cocky," Sayomi rolled her eyes and let the smoke spew from her boots. She picked up a senbon needle, put it in her launcher and fired it at her boots. The spark ignited the white smokey gas and she rushed Rancia throwing flame trailing kicks left and right.

Rancia ducked and weaved, but Sayomi was faster thanks to the thrust of her boots. She flipped forward slamming both her feet into her Rancia sending her flying back into a tree, she kicked off the boots as they got hotter turning red before the ran out of fuel. Her suit was heat resistant, but she didnt want to risk them exploding.

". . ." Rancia leaned against the tree as Sayomi walked over holding up her wrist launcher poised to end her life. "You're strong. That's for certain, but I cannot give up. my lady needs me, she needs you. Your youngest sibling is in danger," Sayomi blinked completely caught off guard. Rancia grabbed Sayomi's arm and spun them over so Sayomi was pinned face against the tree, dagger poised at her back. "That's why you're coming with me!"

Sayomi could feel the razor sharp edge on her skin, any movement, even breathing would cut her. She held her breathe looking for a way out, then Hataka flew back into Rancia knocking them both away.

A feeling of deja 'vu washed over Sayomi as Hiro ran up to her, "You okay?" Sayomi nodded, Rancia and Hataka looked pretty beat up themselves now. "Leave or risk your lives," Hiro yelled charging them both. Sayomi turned to see Hige having no trouble with Sif, the man was just dodging shooting non chakra based techniques from small arcs of lightning, fireballs, and ice shards.

Hige was tough cat, she was a mother of twelves, and treated Sayomi like one of her own cubs. Hearing that Sayomi was in danger gave the big cat the resolve she needed to not flinch when attacked. Sif growled when she roared, where they communicating?

Sayomi couldn't afford to ponder any longer as she rushed to help Hiro, the two of them attacked in sequence one right after the other, blocking attacks for one another. Their teamwork was near flawless; Rancia and Hataka were put on the defensive till they came up to an edge.

Rancia help up one of Sayomi's wrist launching devices, when did she steal it? She threw it down at her feet, her flashbomb! The blinding light stunned Hiro and Sayomi as their vision went spotty, when their vision slowly returned Hataka and Rancia were gone.

Sayomi looked to Sif and Hige, the two were still fighting. Sif looked at Sayomi, not mad, just disappointed in her. He flipped backwards into a freefall and with a green flash he turned into a wolf and ran away. Hige roared after him, but didn't chase.

Instead the tiger walked over to Sayomi and nudged her with her head, "I'm fine Hige." She said spreading her arms, "No wounds!" The tiger snorted as if saying; _good._ The tiger laid down allowing Sayomi to scratch her, Hiro let his shoulders drop.

"That was intense," He said sitting down. "So how is it you know a massive tiger like this?"

"She's one of my summons! I left my contract scroll in the castle, so I hadn't been able to call her or any of my other friends." Sayomi said scratching the tiger who pawed the ground, seals spread on the wood as big scroll appeared. Sayomi squealed in delight picking them up, "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!"

While Sayomi worked on sealing the massive thing away Hiro raised his hand, "I'm glad she was here to help us, but I got a question: how is she here?" Hiro asked as the tiger leapt down and began to pad her way through the woods again.

"This whole forest is full of summoned creatures, even that toad you rode on. He's the Hokage's personal summon," Sayomi explained. "There are probably ninjas here using their summons to assist them all over."

Hiro nodded in undertanding, _What did Rancia mean by that? My youngest sibing is in trouble?_ Sayomi couldn't let this linger on her mind, she had to focus. "Any luck finding Yukirei?"

"No unfortunately." Hiro said shaking his head, he held out his scroll to her. "I got the note out, but I don't know how to unseal this." He said with an embarrassed smile, "I need my watch." Sayomi rolled her eyes smiling as she unsealed the contents, "Yes!" He opened the rations and immediately began digging into his rations completely ignoring the watch.

Sayomi sighed, where was their Prince? She could only hope he was okay.

After Hiro was done eating the two of them patched themselves up and went to look for Yukirei, they couldn't yell otherwise they'd attract attention from not just other ninja, but the other summons in the forest. Sayomi kept her ears open as they travelled avoiding people who were obviously not Yukirei.

While they traveled Sayomi told Hiro everything, Fujin being her older sister, her youngest sibling being in some tough situation, her four brothers, and two other sisters. "Sounds like you got a laundry list of family issues," Hiro said cringing. "After all this do you want help sorting this out? I'd love to help in anyway I can."

"Thanks for the offer, but not right now. My problems will have to wait, we got a whole city's worth of people who need us. Including our own queen," She said as Hiro nodded grimacing.

The two of them travelled just as sunset rolled around, Sayomi paused. She held out an arm to stop Hiro whom bumped into it, she had a strange feeling in her stomach. Something in the air told her Yukirei was here, she didn't hear anything, but she could feel the echoes of a battle.

"This way, I think I got him." She climbed through the trees, she entered what looked like a battleground with a melted tree and hole in the ground. "He was definitely here."

"What makes you so sure?" Hiro asked looking around.

"Umm, women's intuition," She said as she walked around the branches finding arrows littered all over. After seeing Hou Yi's masive arrows she almost forgot what normal arrows looked like, then she found blood all over the tree.

"Is this Yukirei's blood or the archers?" Hiro asked as he picked up a cut in half bow, he tried to fit them together before he just threw it away.

Sayomi stayed deadly silent as she followed the battle scene to where the blood was darkest, she walked up to the trunk and found similar supplies to the ones in their scrolls. "Empty water bottle, food, and pain killers. I think this blood is Yukirei's," She said as Hiro looked around.

He cupped his hands around his mouth, "YUKIREI!" Sayomi didn't stop him, instead she opted to join him.

"Are you there Yukirei!" They waited for any response, but found none. "Let's keep searching, if he was injured, then he can't have gone far."

The two of them moved together keeping close enough, Sayomi picked up on the sounds of combat. Clashing metal, they followed it to see Yukirei in a clearing clashing his sword against a monkey wielding a staff?

Sayomi and Hiro waited in the nearby clearing to watch, it didn't looked like a serious battle, more like casual sparring. Yukirei had certainly looked better before, his skin was pale as he did his best to defend himself against the monkey whom was obviously going easy on him.

The monkey was covered in deep brown fur, looked young, and built like an acrobat. He was wearing a red and black robe beneath a leaf village vest, on his head was a black leaf head protector. "Let's go," they jumped down next to them.

Immediately the monkey did a lunging strike at them and Hiro immediately guarded against it. "Wu! Those are my friends, also friends of Mirai," Yukirei said as Wu the Monkey nodded back off.

"Yukirei, what happened to you man? You look terrible," Hiro asked putting his naginata on his back. "Also who's your new friend?"

"I'll explain the details later, as for Wu, he's a summoned creature with a contract with Mirai. He recognized me somehow, won't say, but he offered to 'fight' me in a duel. If any other ninja got in the way he'd take care of anyone rude enough to interrupt our duel." Yukirei said as the monkey spirit grinned like he got caught for stealing.

"I need to go now," Wu said as he leapt away grabbing onto the branches and swinging his weight around to leave.

"Looks like we're all here, let's get going." Sayomi said as she lead the way while Yukirei did his best to keep up while Hiro lagged behind for him, they made it to a large curved metal plate in the ground and they crossed it together.

"Alright, there shouldn't be anymore summons, but this is the volatile woods." Yukirei said as they walked into a dry savanna field, they took a few steps forward cautious of other ninja when the air turned to hot soup.

The ground in front of them ruptured and spewed steaming geysers of water, the steam washed over them feeling nice. "Whoa. That's awesome how did they do this?" Hiro asked looking excited, "I kind of want to just relax in the hot water."

As he said it the was a massive gust of wind blew in with a cloud of sand, it passed just as quickly as it came. The three of them were now caked in wet sand and the ground was also now covered in quick sand.

The three of them just stood in shock, "Ah, alright. Let's just scout around the edge to find a safe passage." Yukirei said as he started to walk around the edge, they saw the aftermath of natural disasters left and right. Leveled forests from earthquakes, deserts turned to glass from intense wildfires, and even an acid lake.

Eventually they came to something with a stable flooring, a poisonous swamp. "This certainly seems impossible," Sayomi said as she covered her nose from the smell of rotting wood. "You can even see the other barrier," She pointed out where all the terrible conditions ended, about five hundred yards away.

"Any ideas?" Hiro asked watching the ground before them churn with poisonous mud. "We could just risk running through, but who knows how gell that's gonna work out."

"I'm going to try something," Yukirei said making a sign with his fingers to channel his bloodline limit. "You two stick close behind me," Sayomi gave Hiro a look, was Yukirei okay enough to do this?

Yukirei's hands gave off a yellow aura as held his fingers to his mouth and blew a stream of bright yellow fire over the wet poisonous mud. His held the flame for as long as he could, but eventually he stopped to take a few deep breaths. It worked, the mud was completely solid and dry dirt. He took a few steps forward, "It's safe."

Yukirei made the signs burned them a safe passage across the swamp very gradually, Hiro and Sayomi stayed close behind him. They made sure he took frequent breaks and didn't breath in the toxic fumes, behind them the mud was turning their dry 'bridge' back to wet poison so they made themselves a tiny island in a poisonous swamp.

Sayomi couldn't help but admire Yukirei's power, it wasn't spectacular, but it was certainly long lasting. After an hour of making dirt they finally reach the end, it certainly took its toll on their prince. His skin was a sickly shade of white as he fell to his knees and collapsed in the safe grass. Hiro picked him up, "Good job tough guy. Let's get through this finally," the three of them crossed the final barrier to see a castle like building. Leaf jonin were outside and they immediately rushed over to help them.


	11. The Chunin Exams part four

**Chapter 11 - The Chunin Exams part four**

Dante couldn't believe it when he saw it, three titanic arms descending from a massive rift in the sky. The black night sky was clear with the full moon illuminating everything, the three white as bone arms scooped up the Land of Snow's capital city like it was all made of paper mache.

Dante had been sitting atop his vacation house roof when it started, he saw a dragon fly away to a nearby mountain and linger there before disappearing itself. Dante ran to the capital city from the trail only to see a massive crater, then things started to climb out.

At first they were little black creatures, they swarmed toward Dante, but with a few volleys of his chakra arrows they dropped like flies. The whole night Dante fought off shadow creatures and was slowly joined by the guards patrolling the lands who weren't taken, Dante worked with them to contain the crater as more and more guards came, but then the first shadow beast came.

A giant boar, dubbed Hogzilla by Dante, rampaged through the crater and busted down their defences. It took all that they had at the time to take it down, they seriously needed help.

Dante spent the next three weeks mobilizing the surrounding lands to action setting up military outposts around making an impenetrable defence, all the while Dante couldn't stop worrying for his sister's safety, but he had full confidence that Yukirei would protect her.

The guy was an asshole, sure, but he wasn't the type of person to leave people behind to get hurt. Or at least that's what Dante had originally thought, then one day while he was resting he saw the chunin exams program as they were introducing the participants of the Chunin Exams. He loved watching it, seeing the action motivated his archery training, then he noticed something off.

The Land of Snow was participating! He got closer to see three names: Sosetsu Fujikaze, Sayomi Tora, and Hiro Miyamoto. The last two names escaped him, but Dante wasn't fooled for a second. He knew Sosetsu was _his_ grandfather, he also knew Fujikaze was his mother's pen name when she was a teenage actress.

He immediately suited up and left for the Leaf since the Land of Snow's crater portal was now secure and safe, the entire solo journey his hatred for Yukirei grew, at first he wanted to yell at him, then punch him in the face, but when he found the prince pretending to be a ninja he couldn't stop himself. After the first arrow was fired, there was no going back, but thankfully it worked out as a simple talk.

. . .

"So these creatures, they are not summons, and not made of chakra?" Naruto, the 7th Hokage asked.

Dante shook his head, he had just finished telling them his entire story. The entire time the chunin exams were played on a little television, he saw that Yukirei was the first team to arrive at the safe zone, to clear that massive swamp was impressive.

Most ninja had to fight their way through disaster zones, the poisonous, acidic, lava, and freezing zones were barriers in between the volatile zones. So they didn't have to deal with the shifting environment, it was probably for the best, Dante had seriously injured Yukirei with that arrow.

"I can understand wanting to take revenge for your sibling," Sasuke said grimacing. "Though you could have killed your only chance of getting her back, that was foolish-"

"-and impulsive. Blah blah blah, I know this, I'm very self aware. You don't have to tell me that," Dante said making his hand mimic a flapping mouth. The dark haired ninja must've hated him by now and that was just fine, "So none of you guys know anything about what's going on. Do I got that right?"

"We're conducting a meeting between the five kage when they arrive in a week," Sakura said annoyed with Dante's attitude. "Must you be so rude?"

"Hey, I'm not like Yukirei, I'm not polite, tactful, and I don't care. If that bothers you, then tough titty." Dante said getting up, "Until you got something I'm out, let me know if you learn anything worthwhile."

"Who says we're gonna tell you?" Sakura asked gritting her teeth.

"Prince Yukirei and his friends are currently earning their right to be included in the sharing of information, you havent done anything, but be a rude child. If you want any information you'll have to do something."

"Then don't tell me, I don't have time to run an errand for you three." Dante said walking out on them, he sighed as he walked though the halls. He held the enchanted prayed bead on his neck to his lips, _Hey are you there?_

_ There I am, Dante, polite you should have tried. _The spirit of Yumi Magatama, he and his weapon were close. Close enough for her to open up to him and share her thoughts whenever he asked for them.

_ I'm not gonna let them look down on me, too many people do that already, these ninjas need to see me as an adult who's just as capable as them. I don't have anything to prove to them,_ the bead grew warm against his fingers.

_ I see, a shame it is, me and my sister Airisu no Tsurugi. Clash once more, we could not,_ the spirit of his bow also spoke in a very strange dialect. It was because she lived in a time before the advent of chakra so she spoke an ancient tongue, and was new to Dante's language. _To show her the truth, I did hope, she refuses to speak to her wielder . . . alas. What to do, will Dante?_

_ What will I do?_ Good question, he had a home here, so he could only wait for the second part of the exams to be over before he could speak to Yukirei again, he went to his vacation home to find that it was clean. He went around the back to find the hidden key inside of a fake rock, he went to the door and opened it.

"What the hell?"

~ Yukirei Kazahana ~

Yukirei was surprised to hear that they were the first people to make it to the safe central area, as it would turn out they exploited the area taking an "easy" approach to the second area almost completely skipping it by Yukirei burning them a path, they did not anticipate anybody to have the chakra capacity to do what he did.

Once they arrived Yukirei had completely passed out and woke up in the infirmary, they treated his injuries, and ran him through a detoxification session which involved him staying in a private room for an entire day next to a bucket where he couldn't stop throwing up. With him taking such deep breathes in a poisonous swamp he had ingested enough poison to kill a boss summon, but it was a carefully chosen slow acting poison that would have taken days to have any real effect.

Hiro and Sayomi at the time spent their time recovering as well, but not nearly as bad as Yukirei. They got to eat food and simply relax, they tried to stay near Yukirei, but with all the unpleasant things coming out of him he told them to stay away.

Since these second phase tests usually lasted three days and they had arrived on the first night, Yukirei had a whole day to recover, now it was the third day and the last of the ninja had entered the central area and now all sixteen ninja were now standing before the Hokage and many older leaf ninja including Shikamaru, he winked at them with a small smirk as Yukirei, Hiro, and Sayomi stood at the very front being the first to arrive.

"Standing before us is sixteen chunin hopefuls, however only eight of you may move on from this room and advance into the third final test." Sasuke said stepping forward, "If you look behind me you will see a display screen showing the order of these preliminary one on one duels. Be sure to keep them quick and clean," He said closing his eyes as the screen lit up.

The overhead screen showed all sixteen names and the duels match ups:

Okami Seishin (Land of Grass) vs Yobun Nana (Hidden Sand)

Sosetsu Fujikaze (Land of Snow) vs Hyun Li Onea (Hidden Stone)

Takeo Suikami (Hidden Mist) vs Randa Mumen (Hidden Sand)

Kaden Hikami (Hidden Mist) vs Ken Hanta (Hidden Leaf)

Endo Engetsu (Hidden Stone) vs Sayomi Tora (Land of Snow)

Hiro Miyamoto (Land of Snow) vs Aeda Konohana (Hidden Leaf)

Oroboro Farushion (Hidden Cloud) vs Yukas Gundan (Hidden Cloud)

Fuman Fumanson (Hidden Cloud) vs Ichi Happyaku (Hidden Cloud)

It looked like Yukirei would be in the second fight, Hiro and Sayomi would be in the fifth and sixth fight. Naruto dismissed them to the bleachers with the first two staying behind, one was a young man covered head to toe in a red hooded cloak with a silver mask that simply looked like two bird beaks overlapping one another. Over his shoulder was a ornate looking murakumo sword, the thing looked beautiful with ornate engravings, but the edge looked razor sharp.

The fight didn't last a minute. Yobun Na didn't stand a chance, just a sand genin with no real skill other than a few wind jutsu, one well placed swing of the curved greatsword and the genin was done with a deep cut in his side spilling blood like a faucet. He surrendered and the robed swordsman from the Hidden Grass Village walked away without saying anything, "Next up is Sosetsu Fujikaze and Hyun Li Onea!"

Yukirei got up and walked to the arena right behind Hyun who wore a dark blue body suit with a white cloud ninja jacket, skin light, and bright blue eyes and he appeared to be bald.

"Go Yukirei!" Sayomi shouted.

"You got this!" Hiro yelled soon after, Yukirei smirked as did Hyun.

"Cute friends you got there," He said as he pulled out a strange looking black rock. It looked like a yoyo? A chakra thread ran from his finger to the stone.

"Thanks," Yukirei said holding his sheath behind his back, left hand on the sheath, right on the handle. ". . ." He closed his eyes and focused taking a deep breath.

"Begin!" Yukirei dashed forward sprinting and unsheathing his blade in a sweeping strike, Hyun rolled away and spun throwing out the stone with the chakra thread on it. It struck Yukirei's blade with surprising force, it spun back into his hand. It was a Yoyo!

Yukirei kept pressing on the offensive repeatedly sheathing and unsheathing his blade aiming for Hyun's joints, vitals, or neck. Hyun kept dodging and countering his attacks, it was difficult to draw his blade in a reversed fashion, after all he wasn't aiming to kill Hyun. Just knock him out or something, as the fight persisted the lessons Mifune taught him started to come back to him.

_ When you attack you aim to kill or disable, you do not maim people, the most your target suffers the more blood lays on your hands. Your target mustn't suffer, you need to take down your adversary in one strike if possible, maybe two, but never three._

_ Never three,_ Yukirei thought as Hyun launched his first attack. Spinning his black stone yoyo it landed at Yukirei's feet and exploded? With a loud _BANG_ the stone yoyo burst into stone shrapnel, Yukirei covered his face, but sharp stone shards into his legs, torso, and arms. None of them stuck inside of him, but they did leave tiny wounds all over. _Damn, that hurt._

He was suffering, this was exactly what he needed to not do. Hyun pulled out a second yoyo and made the chakra link, ". . ." Yukirei stopped as did Hyun, he was only moving to counter Yukirei, this could afford him some time to think.

". . ."_ T_he two stared each other down, Yukirei made a one handed sign to channel his chakra1. An orange colored aura appeared on his palm, Yukirei unsheathed his blade and spread the aura accross the blade. It's metal now a fluorescent orange color, Hyun went on the offensive spinning his yoyo around him before bringing it down on Yukirei.

Yukirei sheathed his blade and drew it attacking the yoyo knocking it away at Hyun's feet. A bright flash or orange and it exploded in a burst of orange chakra sending the yoyo behind Hyun this time the yoyo exploding launching the same stone shrapnel at his back. _That's one,_ Yukirei sheathed his sword and in vaulted his whole body over Hyun. One well place _THWACK_ spelled the end with Hyun's eyes rolling up in the back of his head and falling unconscious, "And that's two."

"Winner: Sosetsu Fujikaze." Sasuke called out as Yukirei picked Hyun up on his shoulder and brought him to the the lead nurse Sakura whom quickly and easily treated them both. "Next up is Takeo Suikami vs Randa Mumen."

Just like the very first match this one was absolutely no contest, Takeo carried an O-katana paired with a Wakizashi, the odd pair of swords made his fighting style unpredictable. Aginast another basic sand genin it wasn't pretty, Takeo got behind him and with fast slash accros the back of his knees completely disabled his legs.

"Winner: Takeo Suikami." Sakura rushed to the arena to repair his legs before any permanent damage could set in, Takeo just wiped the blood of his sword on Randa's shirt before walking away.

"Looks like this is an exam full of swordsmen," Yukirei said looking at Okami and Takeo. They both gave him a look over their shoulders, "I don't know if that's good, or terrible." Sayomi and Hiro gave him a look, as if to say: _are you serious?_

"The next match is between Kaden Hikami and Ken Hanta," Sasuke called as a leaf boy jumped from the bleachers flipping off the railing. Kaden wore a classy looking gi with a deep green scarf with white vines on it, "Begin."

Kaden waited as Ken made the signs for fire technique, he put his fist to his lips, but instead of blowing he pulled his fist from his lips drawing a dagger made of fire. Yukirei's eyes widened as he watched the technique, it was so cool, he really wanted to know it.

And yet . . . for some reason he felt like he got it, he looked at his hand and made a fist. He was about to put his fist to his lips before he noticed a flash of blue, the two were in a fiery battle both using flames to try and defeat the other.

Ken had drawn two blades of fire and Kaden had two orbs of blue fire orbiting him, Kaden snapped his fingers as a third came to life. The three of them were attacking Ken just by moving around him, Kaden was leisurely walking to Ken as the orbs got closer and closer.

Ken tried to bat them away, but they just broke his blades. Ken grit his teeth and spun with the orbit getting in Kaden's guard, Ken grabbed his scarf and pulled his head down. Ken headbutted him hard and the orbiting blue fire disappeared, Kaden had been defeated by a good headbutt? Takeo stood up running to the rail looking confused.

"What happened?" He demanded, everyone was confused . . . except for Yukirei. Somehow it made sense to him; when Ken got him he aimed for the bridge of the nose, not many people know that's how you're supposed to do it. Most would just bash their skull into another one hoping theirs was thicker.

Ken held up his fist in glory as Kaden's nose dripped dark red. A quick fix from Sakura and Ken ran to Aeda looking ecstatic over his win, Takeo sat back down staring down the leaf genin.

"Winner Ken Hatan, next is Endo Engetsu vs Sayomi Tora." Sayomi got up and walked over giving Hiro and Yukirei a raised to the side fist with a confident smile, Hiro mirrored her gesture. Yukirei simply nodded to her, Endo ran to the rail and flipped to the stage. He took out four thick stone rods the connected to each other like two pairs of nunchaku, Sayomi and Endo watched each other closely. "Begin!"

Sayomi made the signs for a summoning, "Summon: Tira!" A little tiger cub appeared climbing up her shoulder and sitting on it digging its claws into her suit for a tight grip.

"Awwah!" Endo said jaw dropping, he shook his head. His nunchaku burst into flames as he rushed Sayomi swinging his flaming stone clubs with an unrelenting fighting style, Sayomi put a hand over Tira and rolled around to avoid the onslaught of fiery attacks, she wasn't attacking at all, but she held onto the tiger cub closely.

Yukirei watched wondering what was she planning exactly, Endo spun at her a halo of fire surrounding him. Sayomi rolled backwards, but Endo leaned forward so the flames would hit her. She rolled onto her upper back and using her hands only she pushed herself up catching Endo's head between her thighs.

She spun them both to the ground, "Tira do it! Tira Finisher!" The tiger cub jumped onto Endo's face scratching it making light cuts everywhere.

"Gah! Stop that it hurts! Ah! AHAAHAA!" He yelled in pain, Sayomi was still on top his chest holding his arms to the ground as the tiger cub used his face like a scratching post. "STOP I GIVE UP!"

"Winner Sayomi Tora," Sasuke said cringing not wanting to be in Endo's place. He quickly ran to the nurse who healed him up easily, he sat as far away from Sayomi as he possibly could. Sayomi ran up to them with a giant smile and complementing the tiger cub who'd claws were now bright red. "Next is Hiro Miyamoto vs Aeda Konohana."

Hiro got up walking to the arena with his naginata, the girl he was fighting was three years younger than him. She was so short, but despite this she pounded her fist into her hand. "Ready to lose?"

"Yes, I am also prepared to win." Hiro said drawing his naginata taking a stance, Yukirei couldn't see his face, but with how calm and collected he was being, Yukirei could tell he wasn't acting like himself.

The two of them fought, Aeda throwing everything she had at Hiro. From fire and wind jutsu, to ninja tools. Hiro just avoided them or knocked them away staying on the defensive. Aeda continued her assault this time going for a drop kick, Hiro simply blocked her and pushed her off. He helded his naginata far back behind him in one hand, just one swing and he'd have her.

It would be a one hit knocking her off her feet followed by successive brutal strikes, he would win, but he didn't. He swung and missed, on purpose no doubt. Aeda spun to her feet throwing out a kick, Hiro used his staff block and jumped back near the edge. She went to attack him again, "Why don't you fight back!"

"You're hiding something, I know it, a good ninja knows to watch for attacks." Hiro said with a very slight crack to his voice, he didn't want to do this. Yukirei could tell Hiro either didn't want to hurt her, or he didn't want to advance and become a ninja all together.

She looked surprised to hear this, but started to make the signs slowly.

"Hiro!" Yukirei yelled, Hiro turned back to look at him, a pained look on his face. "It's okay."

"A good ninja doesn't get distracted!" Aeda made the signs for a jutsu; "Wind and Fire Technique Burning Gale!" She blew a strong current of firey, Hiro stood his ground, but he flew back off the arena failing the duel. "Winner Aeda Konohana!"

Hiro got up while she jumped up and down happily, "Nice moves Leaf Ninja."

"You need to be less cautious, thinking defensively will only get you so far," She said smugly.

Hiro grinned, "I guess you're right. Next time I'll get you," after that he sat down next to Yukirei. "Thanks Sosetsu."

"No problem man," He said putting an arm on his shoulder, Sayomi nudged him a little.

"Ninja work isn't for everyone," She said with a light grin, Hiro nodded.

The next two battle were mind numbingly long, while the last fights lasted three minutes at most, the last two fights lasted a good nine to twelve minutes each. Somehow the four cloud ninja all got put against one another: first was Oroboro Furashion and Yukas Gundan where they both tried to finish each other as fast as they could with Oroboro using a short flat chakra blade infused with his power, Yukas would avoid and roll away the entire time trying to disarm him.

All of them had history it would appear because they were overly cautious with their punches, Oroboro barely scratched out a victory when the two of them were both ready to collapse. Fuman and Ichi were apparently twins, in combat at least, they used the exact same fighting style and equipment. The two of them danced and flipped around one another barely damaging each other, neither of them eager to throw out an attack.

It took them more than ten minutes to bring each other down little by until Fuman got a lucky hit in and Ichi collapsed. Everyone was pretty burnt out at this point, the adults had even taken seats after Oroboro and Yukas.

"Alright, this concludes the preliminaries for the finals. Take a good look at the screen people, because this is the battle roster for the finals in one week. You saw everybody's fighting style, everybody saw yours, you can plan around their styles, and tweak your own to make yourself less predictable. Follow the johnin for an easy route back to the leaf village please," Naruto said walking away with Sasuke and Sakura.

"This way people, god I need a smoke." Shikamaru said starting to walk with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. Yukirei focused on the screen:

Okami Seishin vs Sosetsu Fujikaze

Takeo Suikami vs Ken Hanta

Sayomi Tora vs Aeda Konohana

Oroboro Furashion vs Fuman Fumanson

His adversary was the red robed man with the silver beak mask, the robed man was facing him also starring at him eerily. "Let's go Yukirei, we got some training to do," Sayomi said with a grin. She was probably gonna have the easiest time here, Aeda wasn't anything special as far as Yukirei could tell.

"Yeah, let's go," Yukirei said walking with Sayomi and Hiro. He knew Dante would probably be in their temporary home and braced himself for the annoying rant that would inevitably follow.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello readers, I know this chapter is severely late and has been a long time coming, but fear not I'm not giving up just yet. I just had finals prep and finals this week, also I had an inner turmoil about how to write this chapter. I want to get to the plot developing chapters asap and I didn't want to make long detailed battles, I hope this doesn't disappoint, but I won't slack on the important battles. I promise ;)**

**Also bonus kudos if you recognize the four cloud ninja.**


	12. Time for Something Else (True Release)

**Chapter 12 - It's time for something else . . . **_**(True Release)**_

Hiro didn't know what to think; Sayomi, Yukirei, and now the Prince of the Land of Honey were all walking through town looking for a good place to eat tonight.

"You're high if you think you get to use the master bedroom in my house!" Where did he even come from?

"You're still an idiot, but an even bigger one if you think I'm sleeping in your old room." It had certainly surprised him and Sayomi, but apparently Yukirei and Dante had fought during the second part of the chunin exams. "Plus you're already used to your betters sleeping in the master bedroom."

"Say you're better than me one more ti-"

"I'm better than you, you got that sneak attack in, and I still managed to pull out a victory." The two of them had already gotten into a small skirmish when the three of them walked to the vacation house and Hiro had to diffuse the situation by suggesting they all eat.

"Oh my goodness can you two please shut up?" Sayomi said gritting her teeth, "If this is how you two are gonna act the entire time than I will personally have Tira here use your faces for scratching posts!" This was directly after their duels in the chunin exams, so the tiger cub with now dark red claws was sitting on Sayomi's head asleep.

Yukirei shivered, "Ah no. You don't have to do that, I'm sorry, but I am not sleeping in Dante's room. I don't trust the sheets, carpet, or drapes anymore than I trust any king to have innocent intent."

"Tch, whatever," Dante said trying to not look embaressed. This was gonna be a long night, hopefully they could find something soon.

The four of them walked through the market district until they passed a two level cafe and bakery, "Oh, let's eat here!" Dante said with a big grin, since nobody else could decide coffee, tea, and sweets it was. "Hey Yukirei, what was my sister doing before everyone got captured?"

"I'm not certain, I was too busy fighting a shadow dragon to pay close attention to her." Yukirei said as they were seated at a table for four on a balcony. "I need to use the restroom, I'll be right back."

Yukirei quickly got up and began to walk off, "I also have to go." Dante said following him, Sayomi looked to Hiro with her eyes widened slightly. Like she was trying to tell him something.

"What?" Hiro asked unsure what she wanted, she leaned in close.

"Go with them, last thing we need is another fight in a crowded area." Hiro nodded and got up walking across the room to the bathroom, he snuck in to find Yukirei at the urinal with Dante behind him still chattering away. Hiro quickly ducked into a stall listening in.

"I mean, I'm just concerned for her is all. You don't know what I had to fight, I mean there was a giant shadow pig, and small piranha like shadow creatures." Dante said with genuine worry in his voice.

"I do know what you had to fight cause you just told me," Yukirei said sounding annoyed. "Dante there is a no talking policy in the bathroom, especially between two men."

"But men and women don't share bathrooms," Dante said confused. "Off topic, I mean what do you really think these ninja can do? Sure they're strong allies, but we got more capable allies in the other royal kingdoms. I was able to rally the surrounding lands to protect the crater that was-"

"Dude, I can feel your breathe on my . . . sword. Shut up, we'll talk more about this later," Hiro did not feel comfortable hearing that. "Let's just get back to the others and wait this out, we won't know anything for certain until after the Chunin Exams."

It sounded like the two of them had left, Hiro got out and washed his hands, at least they didn't fight. He exited and followed the other two quickly to their seats, Sayomi was being uncharacteristically silent with her lips pursed.

Dante picked up a bottle of whipped cream, he looked surprised to find it completely empty. "What the- Did you . . .?" He looked at Sayomi accusingly with the light bottle.

"Hm?" She said looking away, the waiter came to take their orders. Hiro ordered a sandwich with tea, Sayomi wanted a coffee with a muffin, Dante wanted a funnel cake with cinnamon milk, and Yukirei ordered a black coffee with some sweet bread.

"So what now?" Dante asked looking around, "The big boss ninjas need to have their meeting to share information, but that's not for two weeks. So what do we do in the meantime?"

"We can't do a whole lot more other than train, we're gonna be facing some tough adversaries" Yukirei said looking at his empty saucer while spinning it on its side aimlessly.

"No, you don't need to train." Dante said shaking his head, Sayomi gave Hiro a look. As if telling him to stay on his toes_._ "Be honest with yourself Yukirei, what do you have to gain from training for two weeks? It's not like you're gonna learn a new technique, you only have six, you gonna train your sword? Your master isn't here. You're gonna go through the motions you've learned already."

"Then what would you suggest?" Hiro asked hoping he was onto something. Yukirei said nothing, but leaned back in his chair knowing Dante was right.

"I got a plan for us, it's about time we got our minds off of this. It's stressful, I can see it in your eyes. All three of you, I even see it in the mirror," He said with a sigh.

"What's your plan?" Sayomi asked scooting forward in her seat a little.

"It's time for something else," Dante said with a smile as their orders came.

~ Yukirei Kazahana ~

Yukirei knew he was right, as much as he wanted to focus all of his efforts on saving everyone he cared for, and didn't much care for. He had to admit Dante had a good point, he couldn't be stressed out when he fought.

What he didn't have in mind was getting a massage from a complete stranger, "Come on. You'll love it, it's my favorite part of visiting the Hidden Leaf Village. Nobody knows pressure points and acupuncture like ninjas!" Dante said leading him _Senbon Serenity_ a massage parlor in the rich area of the village.

Hiro and Sayomi didn't really feel like going, they said they'd rather relax at the house, and Dante wouldn't let it go, so now Yukirei was here to hopefully relax and maybe become better friends with Dante. He lead Yukirei to the all ninja business where a fair skinned woman with chocolate brown hair in a kimono stood at the front desk, "Hello I'm here for the royals session."

"Right away your highness," She bowed with her hands pressed in a prayer like fashion and a fake delighted smile. "And you friend?"

"Same, today we're both princes!" Dante said with that cheeky smile. Yukirei couldn't help but smile at the irony, "We want your best and most experienced kunoichi!"

"Right," She said still with that smile, her tone less amused. "We'll have our two best kunoichi here for your sessions, that will be two hundred thousand Ryo please." That was incredibly steep, did Dante have enough for that?!

"Here you are," He said taking out his wallet and spilling out a lot of tightly wound rolls of hundred ryo bills. The woman looked just as surprised as Yukirei, "Keep the change."

"Yes your kind and generousness," She said with a suddenly brighter smile and genuine happy tone. She put the money in the safe box Yukirei guess before she went into the back, "Yugao, Anko you're up. We got two Princes here," soon the door opened to show a two young women with purple hair, one looking more fit with more toned muscles, and the other looking . . . softer. More motherly, if Yukirei had to be nice about it, "These are our most experienced kunoichi."

"Have fun Yukirei!" Dante said as the more fit one took him away.

"Ready to do this kid?" The woman asked putting her fists on her hips.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Yukirei said with a nervous smile.

"Oh don't be nervous, I've been a special jonin for many many years now. I'll make you feel nothing below the neck for a few hours," that didn't sound good.

Yukirei was lead into a room with a fountain just outside a paper screen door where he could see other people relaxing. It all looked nice, "Alright now strip down to your comfort level and I'll do the rest." She said with a slight wink before leaving.

Yukirei wanted to put on a sweater, but he decided to just let things happen. He took off his shirt and pants till he was just in shorts and sat down on the table, "Whoa. Nice, She said walking in blowing a soft whistle, "Now lay down on your stomach."

The next hour was amazing, her hands used chakra to pull the stress from his muscles, and to keep him this way she put needles in his back, arms, and legs. He really couldn't feel anything and it was actually amazing, the whole time she asked him questions about work, home, and relationships. _I never expected Dante to have a good idea,_ then he started to hear it.

"Agh! Stop that hurts!" They heard him yell from the toehrside of the wall.

"Wanna ask for a finisher again? I'll be sure to finish you in one move!" He could hear her yell as he cried out in pain.

"Sorry, I said I'm sorry!" He said as his door opened and he began to ran while wearing just a towel.

"Come back, I'm not finished with you!" She yelled running after him with a sword.

_I guess my expectations were right, he never has good ideas. _Yukirei said with laugh, Anko his masseuse grinned.

"I knew she wasn't cut out for this job," She looked at him. "You know I don't mind giving finishers," She winked. Yukirei got up taking his clothes with him the needles in his back still. "Wait, I was kidding! I need to remove the needles!" Yukirei didn't stop as began to take them out himself while he ran.

~ Hiro Miyamoto ~

"You can't be serious," Yukirei said red faced. It was a few days since the incident at the massage parlor, it was night time now and Dante had set this all up after their basic conditioning to simply keeping themselves in peak physical condition.

"Go on, you're 'better than me' remember? You should go first!" Dante said with a giant grin.

Hiro watched this trying not to laugh, the three of them were in Hidden Leaf public hot springs taking a bath while separated from Sayomi who was on the other side. Dante's plan was for them to get their stress out and have a good time before they had to fight, who knew how long they'd be fighting after all.

They just sat there awkwardly since it was just the three of them, until they heard a crowd of girls on the other side shreiking and laughing. Now Dante was challenging Yukirei peek without getting caught, "Don't tell me you can't handle it future Snow King."

"I can handle anything," Yukirei said trying his hardest to sound confident. He was just in a towel around his waist, same as Hiro and Dante. He scooted around the divider, "This is insane." He whispered to himself.

"Shhh," They'll hear you." Dante said with a snicker, Yukirei glared at him before he reached the water part of the divider. He passed over it towards the end which was up against a mountain slope. If he leaned back on the slope he should be able to sneak a peek at the other side.

He put a hand on the slope and stood there with his teeth clenched, who knew what would happen if he got caught. He swallowed hard and leaned back against the slope, he froze in shook looking to the side."Ah . . . hello Mirai . . ."

No way, Hiro scooted over to see what he was seeing. Already leaning on the slope on the woman's side was Mirai Sarutobi. The long unruly black haired girl with deep red eyes and light colored skin was leaning against the slope with a towel starting beneath her shoulders and ending above her knees.

"H-Hello Yukirei. Th . . . This isn't what it looks like, I was challenged to look over," She said frozen with her face slowly matching her eyes.

" Yeah? Well don't worry, I don't mind," Yukirei said with his face slowly mirroring hers. "Okay, bye now."

"Bye!" The two of them got off the slope quickly rushing off, Dante just gave him a smug smirk.

"So how'd it go?" He asked with a big toothy grin.

"Put away the pearly whites before I knock em out," Yukirei said jumping into the hot water with his face a deep red.

"He met a girl already peaking on us," Hiro said with a giant grin himself.

"Oh really! I ought to check for another one!" Dante said sneakily tip toeing to the slope and leaned back on it, "Uh oh."

"AH! A pervert!"

"Peeping tom!"

"Get him!" Dante got up, but an arm reached around grabbing him. The bamboo divider was cut apart by a dark skinned woman with red hair and a sword, it was that big guy's wife! Choji was his name, what was her name? It escaped Hiro.

But now the divider was cut up, Hiro could see all the girls in their towels with their weapons. Sayomi was sitting next to Mirai who looked just like Yukirei, sitting in the water with her head down with a blood red face.

Dante was then chained to the slope surrounded by towel clad girls wondering what do with him, all the while he couldn't stop himself from smiling. Sayomi got up, "Don't worry girls I got him." She summoned Tira to cover him in scratches, a swipe for every girl he peeped on. Meanwhile Hiro got to sit back and watch all the girls in their towels. It was the best night ever!

~ Sayomi Tora ~

"Hey it's just a few scratches, if you ask me you got off easy," Sayomi said. It had been a few days since their little dip in the hot springs, Dante had been sour up till now, but was now slowly getting over it.

"Yeah, yeah. I know that, what pisses me off is that Yukirei didn't fix me up." He said with bandages all over his face, chest, thighs, and shoulders.

_If I heal you, then you will never learn._ Yukirei had said, right now the four of them were split up. Yukirei and Hiro were going to find Shikamaru to hopefully get any new information, plus Hiro wanted to check up on their two horses. As for Sayomi and Dante they were off to the library to find that scroll that Yukirei had lost, it was also a chance for Dante to get acquainted with her since he would be permanently joining them in their mission to save the castle, the queen, and the other nobles.

"He did it just to spite me, what an asshole, and now we gotta clean up his screw up." He said gritting his teeth, at least he didn't blame her even though she was the one who attacked him.

"Hey cheer up," Sayomi said getting in front of him and walking backwards. She gave him a little punch in the shoulder, "I know you and my prince have a hard time agreeing on things, but I can see you two are more than likely gonna be brothers by the end of all this."

"Wanna take a bet on that?" He asked with a toothy grin.

"Uh, no," Sayomi said matching his smile.

"Hold up," Dante said grabbing her shoulder just before she bumped into somebody.

"Oh," She turned to see two familiar faces. They were two people in the chunin exams prelims, "I know you two."

They were two young men, Takeo Suikami and Kaden Hikami from the Hidden Mist Village. Takeo was dark tan with short cropped black hair, but jade green eyes. Kaden was a long haired brownish blonde with the exact same eyes, they were both in casual enough looking clothes, except for Takeo's two swords. One long, the other short.

"Yeah, you're the cat lady from the chunin exams!" Kaden said with a bright smile, "How's your training going?"

"It's going well," Sayomi said as Dante was uncharacteristically silent. She noticed that the two men were eyeing Dante strangely, "Is something the matter?"

"That necklace, where did you come across it?" Takeo asked in a quick impatient tone.

"It's a royal family heirloom, been in my kingdom since the second great ninja war," Dante said not at all acting amused. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"No, it's fine, don't worry about it." Kaden said with a smirk, "See you guys during the final. See you later," He said as Takeo gave them a quick short bow.

". . ." He gave her one last look before walking away with Kaden.

"That was strange," Dante said sighing. "It looked like they were staring right through me, it was creepy."

They quickly made their way to the library after that not wishing to waste more time, they entered it and began to sift through the bland looking wooden tipper scrolls. Yukirei had only showed her what it looked like, gold casing with a green jade cap to the case.

"This shouldn't be too hard, either it's here or it isn't." Sayomi said as she climbed up a ladder to quickly scan for the green tip, but came up empty.

"Any luck?!" Dante called up to her as he turned facing the door, like he'd been expecting somebody. He put his necklace to his lips and began mumbling into it, it was soft, but she could still make sense out of it.

_Yumi, are you certain they're not here? But I saw it in my dreams last night, five people. Fine, I believe you._ That was certainly off putting to here, he started to wander in closer, she had to play it off like she wasn't eavesdropping.

"Nope! Hey heads up!" She called out falling back on the ladder.

"Wha- Woah!" He yelled running under her just barely catching her, "What was that?"

"It's called a "'trust fall,' congrats, you passed." She said with a big grin, he let her up and she sighed. "It doesn't look like anything is here."

"I don't expect the librarian to have a record for something that isn't theirs, but for what it's worth we tried." He said as he sat down on a chair at the closest table, he traced his finger over it looking up at the ceiling. ". . ."

"Are you okay Dante?" Sayomi asked looking up at the same spot, she didn't notice anything out of place other than Dante's odd behavior.

"It's nothing, I just feel like something's off. Like we're being watched," He said rubbing his necklace. Sayomi walked away and turned catching a glimpse of Dante putting his necklace to his lips again, she listened in close.

_What would suggest we do Yumi? God you sound just like Yukirei, 'there isn't a whole lot we can do.'_ _You know for an ancient spirit you aren't very helpful, he had a spirit with him? _As if his strange whispers weren't off putting enough, but he could very well be just like Fujin. The girl who claimed to be her older sister, she had to keep a close eye on him from now on.

"Shall we go find Yukirei and Hiro?" She asked him with a real enough looking smile, she'd been working on it since Yukirei's birthday.

"Sure, but he'll probably say: 'There isn't whole lot we can do.'" He said before he followed her out.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello Readers, I would like to formally introduce you all to our fourth main character: Dante Kinana the Prince of the Land of Honey!**

_**For those who read this chapter prematurely:**_** I'm sorry to my most loyal readers who caught my slip up, what you guys/gals read was a near complete version that I was gonna run through Google Docs, I got mixed up in the "replace chapter" part and accidentally posted it.**

**I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please know that your constant support in anyway that I can get it helps to motivate me to write and keep this story alive and well.**

**That is all for now be sure to follow in order to not miss the Chunin Exams Finals.**


	13. The Meeting of the Five Kage

**Chapter 13 - The Meeting of the Five Kage**

It was finally time for the meeting of the Five Kage, this was a long time coming. Atop the Hokage monument a small wooden cabin was nestled within a grove of trees; normally hidden to the naked eye without the use of genjutsu. It was truly hidden in the leaves.

All of Team Seven were here: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Sai Yamanaka, and Yamato. Sai and Yamato stood outside the door acting as the initial vanguard for any and all attempts on the Kage's lives.

Inside the wooden cabin was a trap door leading to council room built into the cliff of the Hokage Monument with a false glass wall made to look like the side of the mountain. But from the inside it mirrored the Five Kage Summit room in the Land of Iron with the exception of one wall being an entire window that displayed all of the Hidden Leaf Village.

It was time for the meeting, Naruto was nervous, he washed his face in a small bathroom near the council room. This had to go smoothly, this couldn't go like their other meetings where nothing gets decided, this needed results. After the chunin exams, there would only be five months left. They needed all the information they could get.

He grabbed a towel, wiped his face, and grabbed his hokage robes throwing them on, putting his hat atop his hair. He took a deep breath and opened the door to find his seat the only empty one, the other four kage sat silently with their right and left 'hands' next to them. Sasuke and Sakura stood by his seat waiting for him, Sasuke gave him a nod of encouragement, and Sakura gave him a smile.

As he walked he glanced over at the other kage: Darui was accompanied by Samui and Atsui, Chojiro by Ao and Suigetsu, Kurotsuchi by Akatsuchi and her father Kitsuchi, and finally Gaara with his two siblings.

Gaara gave him a nod as well, Naruto gave him a thumbs up as he took his seat. The five kage took off their hats and placed them in the center of the table each symbol facing each others, there was a pause. Naruto closed his eyes taking another breath, "I'm sure you all are wondering why I called for this meeting without explicitly giving any details. That's because I do not want our enemies to catch onto us and I don't want rumors floating around," the word _enemies_ seemed to catch all five kage's attention.

"Is it the Akatsuki again?" Darui asked folding his arms, he had gotten much stronger in the arms, but maintained his gut looking more like a Strong Man, instead of a wrestler like the previous Raikage.

"No, it's something else entirely, something beyond Chakra. Sakura," Naruto asked as she nodded passing around files with all the information the Leaf had acquired thus far. There was one file for each Kage to look through including photos, reports, and transcripts along with a pad and pen for each kage to take notes.

"The Land of Snow?" Gaara asked looking back at Temari who nodded to him. "The Prince is here and we're currently supporting him with any funds he requires," Gaara said writing this down on his pad.

"Yes, I'm sure you've all heard that Kurotsuchi our Tsuchikage was attacked a month ago." Naruto said turning to the very first full report, as did the other kage. Kurotsuchi was remaining silent, there were photos of the crime scene, the golems, and even a photo of her in critical condition. She grimaced seeing them and turned them over, "She was assaulted by a man who claimed the two of them must be wed in six months time. As well as her needing to cross the 'Scarlet Sea,'" Naruto said taking a brief pause, so far so good.

"This sounds familiar," Chojiro said adjusting his glasses. "Two women in our village were given a similar message," Yes, this was exactly what Naruto was hoping for. "Both Mei Terumi and Karin Uzumaki were approached by two boys asking for their hands suddenly," so the previous mizukage and his cousin.

"I too was asked by a boy," Samui said stepping forward. Darui waved for her to keep going, "His name was Saizo. He asked for my assistance and my hand in marriage, I rejected him, then he threatened to destroy my entire village."

"So you attacked him and he almost killed you?" Kurotsuchi asked gritting her teeth.

"No actually, I attacked him again and again." Atsui said folding his arms, "But the coward simply avoided my attacks and wouldn't fight back."

"Then he grabbed my hand and marked me telling me that he didn't have time to waste with my nonsense. That I could be a queen or I could leave him after this was over, but that I needed to cross the scarlet sea in six months or else my village would be utterly destroyed."

Samui pulled off her gloves to show a very similar brand to Kurotsuchi and Yukirei, "That looks exactly like the mark on Karin's arm, and Mei's butt." Suigetsu said with a big grin with slightly red cheeks, he looked to Sasuke and Naruto. "I was gonna tell you two this later, but Karin sent us a letter a week ago with a photo of her brand."

"Where is the former Mizukage now?" Sasuke asked looking concerned, for Karin no doubt.

"She is also missing, she left a note saying she was going for a honeymoon with her new husband." Ao said finally speaking up. "She also sent us a letter saying she would be back soon with a picture of her happily in a wedding gown as well as a picture of her brand."

"On her butt!" Suigetsu said stifling a laugh, "In all seriousness the letters were sparse. We know she would include all of the details if she could, perhaps she's being closely monitored wherever she is."

"We'll get to that later," Gaara said hands clasped and leaning his head against them. "I see here that there is a pretty cryptic poem here about eight children: four of them elements and four of them beasts."

"It would appear that all eight of these children are seeking out spouses, for reasons we do not know." Kitsuchi said, "There is my daughter, the cloud kunoichi, two women from the hidden mist. That's the four women approached, then there is the Land of Snow's prince?"

"Yes. Yukirei Kazahana; prince, actor, and son of Queen Koyuki Kazahana. Another royal actor," Naruto said turning the pages to his profile. There was the whole transcript about his encounter with one of these children, this time a woman had made an appearance. "He's quite adamant about saving his home, apparently the entire capital city was stolen away on his sixteenth birthday, along with the royal nobles from the other lands."

"That explains them being missing," Kurotsuchi said quietly. "I've had my ninja looking for the Earth Daimyo and his family for weeks now." The other kage nodded except Darui and Chojiro, their nobles were still here, but only because they didn't go to the party.

"What are these?" Gaara asked holding up a photo of black creatures on a mountain being fought by what looked like a militia.

"The Land of Honey's prince escaped the capture, the next day these black shadow creatures started to crawl out of the crater left behind. He single handedly rallied the surrounding kingdoms to action and these creatures are being fought daily, I sent some ninja to assist them, as well as bring back these photos." Naruto said, "Both Princes currently reside in the Hidden Leaf."

"What good is an actor prince gonna do? If he's desired by the enemy you should just keep him in a heavily monitored compound," Darui said looking at the picture of the snow prince. In the file the kage could see a photo of him with a sword, but they wanted to hear more about him from Naruto.

"He is also heavily trained in the way of the sword, he is the apprentice of the Land of Iron's former general: Mifune." Naruto said, both Chojiro and Suigetsu looked at each other. "He is also the wielder of the Spectrum Chakra Bloodline Limit, he is quite proficient in the six techniques he is limited to, I feel that he can be an asset should we require him to perform a mission."

"You think he is ready? How is his combat experience?" Chojiro asked obviously cooking up some scheme in his head, it was probably just to recruit Yukirei in the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. If Suigetsu's excited face was any indication.

"I am having him tested as we speak, so far he shows promise," Naruto said with a small grin. "There is however a more pressing matter, these eight children do not appear to use chakra, but some other method or techniques without a better word for it. We call it Magic."

"Magic? Sounds appropriate," Kurotsuchi said leaning back in her chair looking at the photos of the golems. She tossed it in the center promoting the other kage to look at the same image, "These things are infesting my village. We stopped trying to destroy them, you kill one and two more sprout. These things are not natural, they are not made of chakra, and cannot be killed. They seemed be building a giant wall around my village, a cage or barrier of some kind."

"We also appear to know what one of them looks like," Naruto said holding up an image of the woman who infiltrated the second part of the chunin exams. "I'm sure you all saw that part with the summoned tiger and my friend Gamakichi."

"Oh yeah, that was one of the better fights. I liked the girl with senbon launchers," Kurotsuchi said with a smile looking at the image of Fujin. "She doesn't look like much."

"She refused to attack my summons, something about not hurting spirits," Naruto said looking back to Sakura who was writing down all over their words with lightning fast precision. Sasuke was watching her impressed, "Other than this, we know almost nothing about any of the eight children."

An awkward silence fell between the kage, nobody had anything else to go on. Gaara cleared his throat, "so to recap; we got eight magic wielding 'children' seeking out spouses for no clear motive. We need to find this 'Scarlet Sea,' creatures made of magic are infesting our world little by little, and we only got five months to piece this together before eight of our people are married? And if all eight do not go through with their marriage we can assume bad things will happen?" Gaara said clasping his hands together

"It would appear so," Kurotsuchi said with a smug smirk.

"Piece of cake," Darui said folding her arms.

"I want to see this prince in action," Chojiro said looking at the photo handing it to Suigetsu who put in his pocket giving Sasuke a smug smirk.

All in all, this meeting couldn't be better, like a weight being lifted off his shoulder he was happy to have friends in this fight. "Alright," Naruto said, "I just got one more gift for all of you."

Sasuke stepped forward with a scroll he unrolled it and in a poof of smoke five crystal balls appeared: green, blue, yellow, brown, and red. "I recently commissioned these, they are crystal orbs fueled by chakra. These only connect to each other, take them home, and using your chakra we should be able to communicate with one another easily."

"Cool," Darui said picking up the yellow one. He put his chakra into it and his face appeared in the other four orbs, they all took one. Naruto threw the red one up and and down a little, this meeting had gone way better than he expected.

"Thank you all for coming, I implore you to stay for the Chunin Exams, but if you cannot I fully understand." Naruto said with a deep bow, the other kage returned the bow in respect.

"I cannot, unfortunately I have issues to solve in my village. Unrelated to this," Gaara said being the first to take his leave. Maybe he was telling the truth or maybe it was because none of his ninja were good enough to advance ot the finals and he was embarrassed.

"Same, I'm just not interested in staying if I got no ninja in the finals," Kurotsuchi said putting her hands behind her head. At least she was honest, she turned to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura nodding her head. "Thank you guys for helping us when we needed you, I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the near future."

"Looking forward to it," Sakura said with a smile. Kurotsuchi then left with Akatsuchi and her father following close behind, soon both Suigetsu and Chojiro approached them.

"What did each letter say? I feel like you're hiding something," Sasuke said folding his arms looking Suigetsu dead in the eye.

"You're feeling is correct, but before we tell you anything I want to meet this prince. The apprentice of Mifune should be a master swordsman, or at least on his way." Chojiro said, "After the meeting I will tell you everything the Mist knows on this subject."

Sasuke looked to Naruto waiting for his judgement call. It was just an introduction, so there shouldn't be that much on an issue, but: "So you've been withholding information? This could be seen as a betrayal by the other kage, if you tell us now I promise you'll meet Yukirei."

". . ." Chojiro started to clean his glasses, stalling for time. Darui was leaving and soon it was just the five of them at the table, Ao had vanished somewhere. "We've spoken two of these children."

Naruto didn't know what to say, all he could do was ask more questions. "What did they speak to you about?"

"One of them had always been living among us, a local hero in our village. He holds an uncanny sway with the ocean commanding it as if it were his to control, he saved our village from a terrible monsoon when he was just a little boy. The other came to the Mist a month ago requesting to speak to Takeo, he won't tell me what they spoke about, but now the two of them are Mist Ninja."

"You already know them," Suigetsu said with big grin. "Takeo Sui Kami and Kaden Hi Kami!" Takeo and Kaden? The two Hidden Mist ninja from the Chunin Exams?! Naruto looked to Sasuke and Sakura, they too looked surprised, "Now can we meet the Snow Prince?"

"Later, we need to interrogate them." Naruto said turning around, but he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard the scratch of metal. Chojiro had grabbed his shoulder, Suigetsu and Sasuke had their blade's edges grinding on each other over Chojiro's arm.

"Kaden is a Mist Ninja, Takeo Suikami is a Swordsman of the Mist. They are my ninja and under my protection, you will not cause them distress. Unless you want to break our fragile peace you will leave them both alone unless they actually harm your people. Do I make myself clear?" Chojiro said in a dangerously calm tone, Naruto for the first time in a long time felt scared.

Not because Chojiro was intimidating, far from it, Naruto could laugh at him right now if he was feeling apt in the _asshole department_. What scared Naruto was that this wasn't all of the ninja world against one common foe like the akatsuki. This time loyalties could shift . . .

"Sasuke, you don't want to fight me and I don't want to fight you. So let's just stop and you can uphold your end of the bargain," Suigetsu said as he put Zabuza's sword away on his back.

". . ." Sasuke paused staring Suigetsu in the eyes, they were no longer leader and follower. In fact Suigetsu had the upper hand since if Sasuke tried anything it'd be the breaking the peace treaty. Sasuke put away his sword and nodding, "Let's go."

Chojiro nodded, "I'm retiring to my quarters. Suigetsu, you scout the new talent," Suigetsu nodded as the Mizukage started to walk away. "I look forward to seeing the chunin exams in person," a.k.a. he'd stay here to protect Takeo and Kaden.

~ Yukirei Kazahana ~

It was sunset now as Yukirei sat beside the lake drinking a glass of milk, he grew to love milk durring his training. It was always what Mifune gave him during his intense training, he hated the taste, but it made him feel like he was home. The wind was chilling against his wet skin, at the moment he was just in shorts. His shirt was somewhere in the near by, he didn't want to get it soaked like his shorts.

His entire body was sore because he had been swimming all day, not for exercise, but it was because he was trying to master water walking.

A ninja technique that seemed like it would prove useful; invaluable even, unsurprisingly Sayomi could already do it. However what _was_ surprising was that Dante could also do it. Apparently chakra control was key for his chakra arrows and walking on water was how he practiced it; the blonde haired bastard was lording it over him for a week now.

It irritated Yukirei to no end, but he had to be calm about this. Dante and Sayomi told him the same thing, he just needed to coat the soles of his feet in regular chakra to keep himsef above the water. But there was the issue of his feet sticking to the floor, picking things up with his feet like rocks, or just straight up tripping over himself into the water.

He heard the sound of approaching foot step, "Hello?" Yukirei asked looking behind him, he could see four adults approaching.

"Hello Yukirei." Naruto was waving with Sasuke, Sakura, and a new white haired man with purple hair and sharpened teeth in tow. "This is Suigetsu Hozuki, he's from the Hidden Mist and wishes to talk to you."

"Hey," Suigetsu said with a hand raised and a friendly looking smile. As friendly as one could be with shark teeth, "I hear you're quite adept with a sword."

"I'd like to think I am skilled, but that's not for me to determine." Yukirei said adjusting his shorts to be a little more uncomfortable with just how exposed he was.

"Right," Suigetsu said still grinning, his arm extended out as a tendril of water. It landed somewhere in the grass, he pulled it back with Yukirei's shirt now in his grip as it returned to his body. "Can you guess why I'm here?"

He handed the shirt to Yukirei who put it on standing up, "I couldn't hazard a guess." Yukirei said looking at Naruto, did this guy know he was in the chunin exams. Naruto gave him a short quick shake of the head. "If you're from the Hidden Mist, does that mean . . . ?"

"Yes, I would like to personally invite you to join the Hidden Mist as one of our Seven Swordsmen of the Mist!" Well that certainly explained that, Yukirei had no desire to join the Hidden Mist Village whatsoever, but still he had to be polite.

Yukirei tapped into the mindset of a bewildered swordsman apprentice, "Wow . . . I don't know what to say." He said turning his head away from Suigetsu so he could focus on making his voice genuine, "That sounds incredible. But, I cannot, I'm afraid there is just too much going on in my personal life."

". . ." Yukirei couldn't turn to look, he just waited for Suigetsu's response. "I know, I heard about what happened, and that you're training hard to help save your home. Here, I got a gift for you, just incase you decide to join us, but in case you don't think of it as the Land of Water's contribution."

Yukirei turned to see him looking genuinely surprised and curious, Suigetsu unseal a wakizashi, a much shorter variant of the average katana. Typically designed for up and close combat, while maintaining a special design that allowed it to be thrown like a throwing knife. The sheath and grip were made of black painted wood with dark blue kanji for _swift_, the blade itself was straight, not curved, and carried the black sheen of a chakra blade.

"Thank you, I will take any assistance I can acquire to save my home." Yukirei said setting the blade to the side, "I apologize for not being able to accept your invitation."

"It's fine, I honestly didn't expect you to go for it," Suigetsu said lying with his best smile. Yukirei could tell, the same way he could tell Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were relieved with his decision. Suigetsu then walked away waving his hand, Yukirei looked to the other three.

"Hey," He said getting their attention. "Is there a particular trick to water walking I'm not getting?"

"Is that what you're doing?" Sakura asked who now understood his attire, or lack thereof. "Here," She said walking up next to him. "It's all about fine tuning your chakra control, first you'll try to climb a tree."

**Author's Notes: This arc sure it taking forever huh? I can't wait to get to writing the really interesting stuff, but first the finale of the chunin exams. It will happen in the next chapters or two, also WHOA Takeo and Kaden are two of the eight children?!**

**Some people already new this because of my screw up, but don't worry that same information would have been revealed in the next two chapters regardless.**


End file.
